


New Leaf to Turn

by slavetothepen (therunawaypen)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dudley has a magical child, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Meeting the Family, Reconciliation, hogwart's letter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 36,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therunawaypen/pseuds/slavetothepen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dudley Dursley lived a very normal life. But when an all too familiar letter makes an appearance on his son's 11th birthday, Dudley must seek the guidance of a cousin he hasn't seen in 19 years. Who else but Harry Potter?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Very Normal Life

**Author's Note:**

> To those of you who have already read this story on FF.net, I just want to let you know that this version has been edited and "refined" for want of a better phrase.

Dudley Dursley would be the first to tell you that he lived a very normal life. He had a good job, a small home in a quiet neighborhood that reminded him of home, a loving wife and wonderful children. The thought of his family always brought a smile to his face, even as he was driving home from a long day at work. Even if his job was stressed or things weren't going right, Dudley could always count on his drive home to lift his spirits as he thought of his perfectly normal life.

Such was the exact frame of mind that Dudley Dursley found himself as he got into his car after work. It was late, having stayed at the high school he taught at to help coach his boxing team in preparation for the next big match, and he was tired. As he started the engine, he looked out of the car window to see some of his students leave the school, some driving, some being picked up by parents. Dudley couldn't help but chuckle; there had been a time when the thought of being a parent seemed absurd to him. He was still chuckling to himself as he pulled out of the parking lot when he reminded himself how he thought he would never get married either.

But here he was, happily married for 15 years and the proud father of two wonderful children, the perfect amount in his opinion (then again, he could be biased). And of course, he had the cliché white picket house in a quiet neighborhood that reminded him of his home growing up. It was ordinary, but Dudley liked ordinary, he liked  _being_  ordinary. He didn't mind having a normal life, because had you asked him 19 years previously, he might have told you his life was anything but normal.

Because 19 years previously, he had been rushed out of his house in a panic due to a war no one in his world knew about.

A war that centered about his cousin, Harry Potter.

Dudley blinked. He hadn't thought about his cousin in years…had it really been 19 years since he had last seen Harry? It must have been, that last memory of the green eyed boy had been when Dudley had offered a feeble apology to his cousin for the years of torment he had given him. A chill went down Dudley's spine at the thought. All those years that he had been spoiled by his parents and bullying smaller children, Harry had been selflessly saving the world, not once, but several times. Even while his aunt and uncle, Dudley's own parents, had belittled and tried to 'beat out' his magical powers, Harry still cared enough to worry about their safety, even saving Dudley's life when they were 15.

Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Dudley tried not to dwell on the actual event of almost having his soul drained. The event was horrific and traumatizing, but he did have to admit that it was in that horrible night that Dudley's life had changed forever. Before that night, he was a spoiled bully who was gaining weight faster than a drag racer gains speed. But after…

After that night, Dudley saw who he was and was disgusted with himself. And it was then that he began to see his smaller cousin in the light he deserved. He had saved his life just minutes after Dudley had tormented him about nightmares that he had been plagued with. Before that night, Dudley could have never comprehended such selflessness, such courage…and he knew he needed to change.

Change had been slow at first because Dudley had no idea where to start. But his starting point (at least in his mind) had come in the form of letting his cousin know that he was grateful. That moment had let him let go of who he was, and slowly but surely he was able to gain momentum in changing who he was. The first was being his weight.

At this thought, Dudley couldn't help but laugh outright. It had been the first thing he had done at his university, joined the cross country team. Running...something Harry had been doing for a long time. And ironically, it was Dudley's turn to be teased for being abnormal (for his size, of course). It reminded him of how much he had tormented Harry, and this gave him that much more incentive to try harder and prove that he could change. The thought of Harry had pushed Dudley to the point that by his sophomore year, he not only could see his belt buckle and touch his toes, he could run a six minute mile.

Not to mention manage to get a steady girlfriend.

As he took a turn from the main road, Dudley smiled. Diane was everything he wanted in a woman: beautiful, sweet, witty and best of all, could cook better than his mom (not that he would ever tell his mom that such a thing was possible). It surprised when she accepted his invitation to dinner one night, and from then on, they hit it off. By his junior year, his parents had insisted that Diane call them "mum and dad" and by his senior year, both his parents and her parents were hinting that he should propose. And, being the gentlemen that he had recently shaped himself to be, he took Diane to their favorite restaurant the night after graduation and proposed, on one knee and with her father's blessing, to the love of his life.

The wedding was scarcely a year later.

And it was shortly after their 4th wedding anniversary that Dudley had the second happiest day of his life, his son William was born. Will was the spitting image of his father, but thankfully, due to Diane's insight on food (being that she was a dietitian at the local hospital), Dudley's girth as a child was nowhere to be found on William. As the boy grew, Dudley was happy to see how much of his mother was in William. He was selfless, even if he had a habit of getting into trouble. Once Dudley had been called from work because William had set fire to the teacher's toupee in the middle of a lecture and Dudley needed to pick him up from school, although Will would argue that he did no such thing to his teacher, even though he was mad at the teacher for punishing him for wearing the wrong colored socks.

Dudley was seeing less and less office buildings now, and more houses as he made his way into the neighborhoods. As he watched some small children played in their front yards, he couldn't help but smile at the thought of Marigold, his youngest.

William had been two years old when Marigold was born. Unlike when William had been born, Dudley had almost been scared to find that he had a daughter. He knew what to expect with a son, having been one himself, but a daughter? Dudley had no sisters, or even a female cousin, so the idea of raising a little girl had him intimidated. But when he held little Mari for the first time, the fear and 'what if…'s melted away and he knew that he could and would raise this girl to be the type of woman her mother was. And after nine years, he would like to think he was doing a good job of doing so.

Spirits lifted and not so tired anymore, Dudley pulled into the driveway of number 16, Chestnut avenue. The house was quaint, not too big and not too small, just right for their sized family. The grass was green and trimly cut, as Dudley mowed it every Saturday, and the white picket fence added a sweet touch.  _Even if it is a little cliché_ , He thought as he got out of the car and walked through the front door.

"Honey, kids, I'm home!" Dudley was greeted by the sound of footsteps gaining speed down the hall towards him.  _Couldn't be too far now…_ he braced himself for impact…

"DADDY!" Marigold shouted as she took a flying leap into her father's arms, giggling.

"Hey pumpkin! " Dudley was positively grinning now, setting Mari down as William came into view.

"Hey dad, did practice run late tonight?" The blonde boy asked, looking up at his dad. Dudley could tell that there could be a chance that William could take up Dudley's interest in boxing, but time could only tell.

Dudley chuckled, "Yeah, you know how it is. We have that big match against Smeltings coming up." The older blonde could appreciate the irony in his statement, even if his children couldn't.

Diane made her way into the hall as Dudley set Mari down onto the floor, and try as he might, he couldn't help but take a few moments to just look at his wife.

She surely wasn't as thin as she was in their university years, but Dudley would never fault her on that. She did carry his two children for nine months each, plus he liked the slight curve she had on her hips, even if she didn't. Her face did have a few wrinkles, but they weren't from worry or stress, but from laughing and smiling. He thought he saw a gray hair or two, but this he would never tell his wife. Ever. He could also tell from her flushed face as well as the flour on her hands and shirt that she spent her day off in a hot kitchen making a wonderful dinner.

She was beautiful.

"Stop staring at me and come over here, you loon." Diane laughed, hugging her husband. Dudley smiled before kissing her cheek.

"You're beautiful." He whispered

"You're mental." She replied, going back to their dining room to serve dinner. Dudley smiled and followed his wife and children for dinner.

Yes, Dudley Dursley had a very normal life.


	2. Not So Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has a happy birthday that turns Dudley's life upside down.

_5:45 a.m._ Dudley groaned as he looked at his alarm clock, tired and not to mention groggy.  _Who on earth wakes up at 5:45 in the morning? And not just any morning, but on a Saturday morning no less?_

That's when he was reminded of the date by the circled day on the calendar in his bedroom. It wasn't just any Saturday morning, but it was _the_ Saturday morning.

May 25th. To any other family, just another day, But to the Dursleys…

_Will's birthday_ , Dudley thought in a sleep-induced haze before reaching over and laying a hand on Diane's shoulder. "Diane, wake up…"

A groan was the only response he got from his wife, but Dudley knew that his wife was awake. Even while half awake, he knew that groan could be translated to ' _Why on earth are you trying to wake me up at such an ungodly hour?'_

"It's the 25th Diane. Will's-" Unfortunately Dudley wasn't able to finish his sentence when the sound of footsteps were heard, much heavier and faster than Marigold's, which could only mean…

"He wouldn't…" Diane muttered from under their comforter.

The racing footsteps made their way down the hall, gaining speed.

Dudley groaned, "He would."

And he did. Just as Dudley's alarm clock hit  _5:47 a.m._ , William made his grand entrance into his parent's room, which included him making a flying leap onto his parent's bed, just as he had for as long as anyone could remember. Both Diane and Dudley hoped every year that on his birthday that Will would decide that he was too old to jump on his parent's bed at dawn and alert the entire neighborhood that he was a whole year older, that maybe one year, he would decide to just sleep in.

Unfortunately, Will had decided that he liked his self made tradition.

"It's my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! I'm 11 now, I'm 11!" Will laughed joyously, bouncing with every word he shouted. Dudley groaned at every bounce and Diane hid under the covers, trying to hide from her son.

"William, can't you be like normal boys and sleep in on a Saturday morning?" Dudley said half jokingly as he sat up, just as William plopped down next to him.

Will only grinned, "No way dad! I'll never be normal! What's so special about being normal?"

A muffled response caused both Dursley men to look over at Diane.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, what was that?" Dudley looked at Will, trying not to grin.

Diane poked her head out of the covers, her short brown hair mused up with bed head, "I  _said_  'Normal people get to sleep in', but what do I know? I don't get to sleep in."

At this, both blonde's laughed. "Aww, I'm sorry mum." Will tried to say with a straight face, but Diane didn't buy it.

"William Jeremiah Dursley, don't you every lie to my face like that." Diane put on her best stern face, but it melted quickly as she watched her son, "Now come here so I can give you your birthday kiss." Ah yes, the birthday kiss. It was Diane's own tradition, one that Dudley swears was revenge for Will waking her up on her days off, but he knew better than to question his wife.

"Mum! Do I have to?" The smaller blonde wrinkled his nose, but made his way over to his mother. Dudley stifled a laugh as Diane gave Will a sloppy wet kiss on his son's cheek. "Yuck! It's wet!" Will grimaced, scrubbing to get his mothers kiss off his cheek.

"Well, if that's how you're going to be, than I guess I'll just give the rest to your father." Diane smirked, leaning over to peck Dudley on the lips. "Good morning." She said with a soft smile.

Dudley smiled in return, "Good morning to you too."

"ZOO!" All three Dursleys sitting on the bed turned to look at Marigold, who had woken up during all the commotion. Giggling, Mari climbed up next to her brother, "We're going to the zoo!"

How could Dudley have forgotten? Will had asked that they take a few of his friends to the zoo with him for the day before having cake and ice cream with his parents back at their house. When Will had first asked, Dudley had the overwhelming urge to suggest something else, but it wasn't until then that he remembered _why_ the zoo was such a tender memory to him.

_Oh the irony…_ Dudley mused, not sure if irony was even the proper name for the situation. _Perhaps a coincidence…_

Or an omen.

* * *

"Come on dad! I want to see the snakes!" Will laughed at Dudley, who was walking behind them at a slower pace than normal.

Dudley looked up from his ice cream and at his son, "You run ahead, I'll catch up!" Of course, Will didn't need to be told twice, running with his friends Andrew Monroe and Luke Redtree. Dudley watched as his son ran off, lost in his own memories. It seemed like it was only yesterday that he was 11, back when he thought he owned the world.

A shudder ran down the blonde's spine at the thought.

"Dudley?" Diane looked at him, aware of his uncharacteristic behavior. "Is the ice cream not agreeing with you? I told you that the high fructose corn syrup would only make you sick."

Dudley looked at his ice cream, a simple fudgescicle, and shook his head. He'd eaten far worse at Will's age, "No, it's not that. Come on; let's catch up to the boys." He gave his wife his best smile, and to his relief, she smiled back.

"Alright then, I'm sure Mari's absolutely tormenting them in there." She laughed as they made their way into the reptile house. The moment she saw her daughter in her little brown plaits, Diane made her way over to her, careful to let the boys have their space.

Meanwhile, Dudley watched as William marveled at the various reptiles, especially the large snakes.

_Just like Harry did_ …

Dudley paused. This was the second time in two days that his thoughts had been drawn to Harry, more than Dudley had thought about him after he met Diane. Perhaps it was the fact that he was in the same place that seemed to landmark Harry's… _ability_.

_Am I so afraid to say it?_  Dudley mused. Surely he wasn't still scared of the cousin that saved his life…was he?  _No, I'm not…alright then…_ _ **magic**_ _, there, I said it…_  Surprisingly, he didn't feel as disgusted at the forbidden 'm word' as his parents had led him to believe. Sure, it was unnatural and should be impossible, but according to science, bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly, yet they do.  _Does that make bumblebees magical?_

At this thought, Dudley couldn't help but smile as his hand touched the python exhibit. The glass was cold, and he could see various fingerprints and smudges from guests past, but he could also see his own reflection. The last time he had been there, he was yelling at the lazy snake to move, only to abandon the cold blooded animal in search of something with more instant gratification. But Harry didn't. Harry stayed behind, even tried to talk to the python.

_Probably just wanted to talk to_ someone,  _even if it was a snake…_  At this, Dudley felt a knot tighten in his gut at the horrible treatment of his cousin. How Harry managed to remain sane was beyond him…well, as sane as talking to a snake could be.

But something else about that day stuck out in Dudley's memory. That was the day he learned that there are stronger things that physical strength. Even when he felt like losing his temper, he would always remember how he shoved Harry out of the way to see the then-moving python. Harry had in turn not raised his voice or his fist, but had simply made the glass vanish. Dudley might have been bigger, but Harry was definitely stronger. Strength didn't come from muscles…

"Dad!"

Dudley started, surprised by the sudden calling of his 'name'. The older blonde looked away from his reflection and turned towards his son.

"Come on dad, Grandma and Grandpa are waiting for us at home for cake and ice cream!" Will's eyes were bright and full of life. Dudley could only smile at them.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming." Dudley laughed before following his son to the car.

* * *

"There's my Darling William!" Petunia Dursley cooed, almost crushing the small blonde in a massive hug as they arrived from dropping off Andrew and Luke. The Dursley family had hardly made it into their own house before Dudley's mother had rushed to greet her only grandson. To his credit, Will tried not to squirm too much as his grandmother almost squeezed the life out of him.

"Grandma!" Will laughed, "Let me go, I can't breathe." Dudley watched as his son expertly moved from his grandmother's arms, still smiling as Vernon Dursley clapped him soundly on the back.

"William my boy, it's good to see you grow one step closer into becoming a man." The oldest Dursley man said gruffly, adding his own chuckle. William smiled the best he could, having heard the same greeting from his grandfather for as long as he could remember. Diane shared a look with Dudley, obviously sharing Will's train of thought.

Mari was the one to break up the grandparent greeting party, "I want cake!"

Diane lit up, eager to divert her in-laws attention, "Yes, cake sounds delicious right about now. I'll just go get it from the kitchen. Why don't you all go into the dining room to wait?" Her voice was almost too chipper to Dudley's ears as she made her way into the kitchen. Without a second thought, he followed her.

"You sound eager to get out of the room." Dudley joked; kissing his wife's cheek as she carefully frosted the cake she had baked earlier.

Diane looked at him sheepishly, "I'm sorry Dudley, I try my best, but your parents are..."

"Suffocating?" The blonde offered, stealing a sample of the frosting, "Mmm, Will really does like the chocolate, doesn't he?"

This action only received him a firm swat on his hand, "Stop that! And as for your parents, I was going to use the term overbearing, but that's a good word too." Diane's brow furrowed, "The frosting is melting, Dudley could you open the window?"

Dudley nodded, reaching over to open the kitchen window, facing the dining room. "Is that better, darling?"

Blue eyes narrowed at him, but all in good humor, "Why yes my  _Diddykins,_ thank you so very much." A grin spread across her lips as Dudley groaned.

"I wish my mother had never told you that nickname, it's embarrassing." At this, Diane laughed.

"Whatever you say,  _Big D_." Dudley shook his head as his wife's nimble hands frosted the cake with a calm ease that not even his mother had ever managed to have. Before he knew it, his son's cake was wonderfully frosted and had 11 blue candle's standing straight up. "Shall we wish our son a happy birthday?" Diane said with a sweet smile, the smile that Dudley had fallen in love with.

"Of course, lead the way." Diane rolled her eyes as Dudley picked up Will's cake and proceeded to carry it to the dining room, where his son was being questioned by Dudley's father about his lack of sports while Marigold sat awkwardly in her grandmother's lap. In the background, Dudley could see the small pile of presents his parents had brought. He silently prayed they hadn't tried to match the number of presents he got for his 11th birthday.

_Honestly, what child needs 37 gifts? There couldn't possibly have been 37 things I had wanted…_  Dudley tried not to roll his eyes at his younger self's greed and focused on the present, and more importantly, his children.

"Grandmaaaaa, I can sit in my own chair!" Mari whined, trying to get into her own chair. Dudley chuckled.

"Mum, could you take a picture of Will with his cake? I need a few of the whole family with him." He could have sworn he heard Mari give a sigh of relief when his mother set the 9 year old girl down to take Dudley's camera.

Will frowned, "Do we have to?" Diane leaned forward to whisper something in her son's ear, but Dudley didn't hear it. But whatever she said made William's attitude make a complete turnaround, smiling brightly for his grandmother as Dudley moved beside his wife behind his son, who was seated at the head of the table. Mari tugged on her father's trouser leg.

"Daddy, pick me up!" Dudley smiled at his daughter before taking her into his arms, even if it did take a small bit of effort. His little girl's eyes seemed to brighten as she hugged her father.

Meanwhile, Dudley's own mother beamed from behind the camera, "My precious little Diddykins and his family!" She cooed as the camera flashed several times, taking multiple pictures. It seemed every time anyone made any movement, it justified 10 more pictures.

"Grandma! I want to blow out my candles before they melt all over the cake!" Will finally exclaimed after 15 minutes of Petunia taking photo after photo.

Pursing her lips, Petunia finally set the camera down as Diane started singing,

" _Happy Birthday to you_

_Happy birthday to you_

_Happy Birthday dear William_

_Happy Birthday to you!"_

Dudley was content not to try and sing with the rest of his family, but rather listen to his wife standing next to him. The only other time he got to hear her sing was when she was in the shower, but that was a secret he'd never tell.

"Make a wish Will!" Dudley urged his son, grinning from ear to ear.

Eager to please his father, William took a deep breath and, after a moment or so to ponder his wish, blew out the candles. Each and every one.

But before Dudley and his family could cheer, another noise filled the room. A noise Dudley hadn't heard in years.

The rustling of feathers.

In an instant, Dudley's eyes darted to the window that he had opened just minutes before just in time to see a barn owl swoop in, startling everyone at the party. The bird seemed only to flap around the room for a few moments, dropping feathers over the room before flying back out.

There was a moment of silence. Before Diane started laughing, "My goodness! I guess I shouldn't leave that window open anymore! What a shock, wouldn't you say Dudley? ...Dudley?"

Unfortunately for Diane, Dudley wasn't paying the least bit of attention to his wife. It seemed that the bird had dropped more than feathers in the room.

Vernon Dursley was turning bright red; while Petunia Dursley was turning stark white. But Dudley could swear that he felt his heart stop as he saw the letter sticking straight out of his son's birthday cake.

A letter written in emerald ink.

Suddenly Dudley Dursley's life wasn't so normal anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now a lot of people mentioned that Hogwarts letters don't come out on a child's birthday, instead they come in the middle of summer. I know that, but I didn't really get the chance to explain my thought process. 
> 
> After the war, Hogwarts went through a rebuilding process. While they rebuilt the building, they also re-imagined the curriculum. They decided to send Hogwarts letters out earlier for the benefit of Muggleborn children, so they would have the entire summer to prepare for Hogwarts, and not just a month and a half (or whatever it is).
> 
> I'll admit, this kinda just spawned from me wanting to give Will my father's birthday.


	3. Action and Reaction

No one moved for at least an hour…Alright perhaps that was stretching the truth. In reality it was only about 30 seconds, but to Dudley, that letter made time stand still; the same letter that, almost 30 years ago, had turned Dudley's life upside down. It was the same letter that told Harry he was a wizard.

_A wizard. But that means-_  But Dudley could not finish his thought, for Marigold had already broken the silence with her sweet voice.

"Will, look! Another birthday card!" The 9 year old clapped her hands excitedly as Dudley set her down on the floor.

Will blinked before looking around at the feathers, "I guess so! But wow! What was that? A hawk? An owl?" The smallest blonde laughed, "Maybe it was the zoo sending me a special birthday message."

Will was still smiling as he reached for his letter, but Dudley saw another hand move towards the letter, his fathers. Dudley knew what would happen if Vernon Dursley got his hands on that letter. Just like when Harry got his letter, the oldest Dursley man would destroy any letter to Will that he could get his hands on. And just like when Harry was 11, the letters would keep coming until they would become too much for his family to handle. Definitely not something Dudley wanted, even if he wasn't sure what he thought of this letter's appearance.

But if Will got the letter… _Oh no…_ Dudley's mind raced. Did he want his son to read the letter? No, at least, not yet. If William read that letter now, chances are that he would simply discard it as another joke or even become scared at what the letter entailed. Dudley had spent the past 19 years ignoring everything that letter stood for and now he had but a split second before deciding that although he was not against his son reading the letter, he wanted his family to know what they were getting into.

As both his father and his son reached out their hands to grab the letter, Dudley made his decision faster than his right hook, and snatched the letter from both of them.

Will's blue eyes brightened in surprise as his father took his own letter from him, "Hey! Dad, that's mine!"

Dudley tried to ignore his own father's still beet red face, and instead put on his best smile for his son, "I know Will. I just wanted to clean it off before you read it. You wouldn't want to get chocolate icing all over your hands before opening presents would you?" Will looked at his dad for a moment, pondering. Then, to Dudley's relief, he smiled.

"That makes sense dad, do I still get to eat my cake and ice cream?"

Dudley laughed, trying not show any signs of his relief, "Of course!"

At this, Will seemed satisfied, "Ok, but hurry! I want to open my presents!" The smallest blonde was grinning from ear to ear, making Dudley laugh in return.

Diane picked up the plate that held the cake on it, "What have I told you about being impatient William?" She tried to send her son a stern look, but faced with the boys sheer joy, the chastising look melted away as she made her way into the kitchen. Dudley quickly followed with the chocolate coated letter, leaving his parents alone with his children.

Only when he was in the kitchen did he dare look at the letter, his heart pounding loud enough that he swore Diane could hear it from the other side of the kitchen.

There it was, in the same emerald ink as last time, but this time…

_Mr. William Dursley_

_Head of the Dining Room Table_

_16 Chestnut Avenue_

_Workingham, England_

_They knew where he was seated…_ Dudley stared at the envelop. But why was he surprised? They had known that Harry had slept in the cupboard under the stairs for crying out loud.  _But did this letter really mean that Will's a wizard like Harry?_ Something about that thought made Dudley excited. Did he want his son to be like his cousin? There was certainly nothing wrong with his cousin, he was a very selfless and courageous man, Dudley would be proud to raise a son with such qualities.

_But not all wizards are good_ , he remembered. Like the wizard that killed his aunt and uncle, Harry's own parents. The same group of wizards had forced Dudley and his parents to flee his house in the middle of the night. Could he live knowing he might have raised a dark wizard?

Before Dudley could answer his own question, the sounds of footsteps rushing past the kitchen door were heard. Confused, the blonde man set the letter on the counter to follow the noise. The sight in the hallway only further confused him.

"Mom, Dad, where are you going?" Dudley couldn't help but ask when he saw his parents putting on their coats and scarves.

Petunia Dursley gave her son a sheepish smile, "Oh Diddykins, I'm sorry, but something's come up. We really must be going..."

Dudley didn't buy it for a second, "You're leaving because of that letter aren't you?" For some reason, the fact his parents would leave his son's birthday party for some letter made his blood boil.

Vernon, who Dudley noted was still quite red, only grunted, "Call us when that blasted letter is destroyed!"

"Oh, and then you'll treat your grandson like he's human?" Dudley grit his teeth, "But what about when the next wave of letters comes? You know they don't just give up. Will you abandon him every time he receives a letter?" Dudley knew he was getting loud, but it wasn't until that moment that he began to see how infuriating his father could be.

The eldest Dursley looked as though he might burst a blood vessel, "Don't you dare speak to me that way boy!"

Dudley's hands were in tight fists, "So  _I'm_ 'boy' now? I thought you only called Harry that-"

"Don't  _ever_  mention him in front of me Dudley. I never want to hear the name of that fr-"

"DON'T!" Dudley couldn't stand it anymore, he had to put his foot down. Literally, causing some of the wood flooring to vibrate, "Don't call him that dad. I don't ever want you to use that word in this house again. If you call Harry that, then you're calling Will that. I don't know if you had some reason to dislike Harry, but I know you love Will. Or at least you did not even 15 minutes ago when you were congratulating him on his birthday. Letter or no letter, Will is still your grandson, dad."

"Until he goes off to  _that_  school. Then he'll be one of  _them,_ just as unnatural and disturbing," His father bit back, "Then he'll be a  _freak_."

Dudley saw red, but instead of giving in to the urge to pummel his father into a fatty pulp, he instead marched right past them and to the door, opening it for them.

"Get out."

Vernon Dursley was almost purple, giving his best intimidating look, " _What_  did you say boy?"

Dudley wasn't fazed by his father's temper tantrum, "I will not just stand here and let you insult my son and my family. Unless you want to accept what your grandson is, I suggest you leave until you can." The blonde's grip on the doorknob was almost a death grip, staring down with his father. Each Dursley man was challenging the other, and it was just a battle of wills now.

Finally, after a tense few seconds, Vernon Dursley stormed out of the house, "Come on Petunia!"

Petunia, who had been quiet the whole time, slowly made her way to the door. When she passed Dudley, she tried her best to give her son an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Dudley… I know Will's a good kid. Your father is just…"

"Mom." Dudley watched as his mother pursed her lips the way she always did before continuing, "Don't apologize for him mom. If he wants to be Will's grandfather, he'll have to get over his hate for Harry."

To his surprise, his mother nodded, "I know Dudley, but you know how stubborn your father is about these things."

"People can change mom. I did, there's no excuse for him to abandon Will like that." Dudley took a deep breath, "When dad's ready to apologize and move on, I'll be listening."

For the longest time, Petunia Dursley just stared at her son, not sure how to respond. Then the older Dursley woman stepped forward and embraced her son.

"Will's going to be a great wizard, Dudley." She looked up at her son, "I'll call tomorrow to check and see how the family is reacting, would that be alright?"

Despite his anger at his father, Dudley couldn't help but smile at his mother, "That would be greatly appreciated mom, I think Diane might need a woman's support in all this."

Perhaps the family would be alright, after all...

"PETUNIA!" Vernon Dursley's voice what heard clear across the yard and into the house, disrupting the tender moment between mother and son.

Reluctantly, Petunia stepped away from her son, "I have to go…but I will call tomorrow."

"I'll be expecting it mom." Dudley said as his mother left to get into her husband's car. Slowly but without hesitation, Dudley shut the door behind his mother, only to lean heavily on it once it was shut.

It felt odd, reprimanding not only his father, but his own mother about the situation. And over all things, it had been because Will was now a wizard. Dudley snorted, surprised he hadn't seen the signs before. William was always getting into trouble because of unexplained phenomena.  _Like setting his teachers toupee on fire because he was angry at being punished for his socks…_

Of course Will would end up being a wizard, he had even said just that morning that he never wanted to be normal. And he had gotten his wish, even if he wasn't aware of it yet…

The sound of his children bickering in the next room shook Dudley out of his thoughts as he walked away from the door.

"Mari, you can't open a present, they're mine!"

"I want to help!"

Dudley poked his head into the dining room to check in on his children, "Mari, Will is right. This is his special day." Will grinned at his father while Mari pouted, "But if you wanted to be nice to your sister and let her help open some of the bigger ones Will…" Dudley gave his son a wink, knowing that Will understood that it wasn't a suggestion his father gave him.

Dudley was glad that his children hadn't overheard the argument he had with his parents in the hallway. He had always told his children that yelling never solved anything, he would have hated being called a hypocrite…

_Better help Diane with the cake…_  At this thought, Dudley chuckled. Knowing Diane, she had already cut the cake and scooped the ice cream before storing the rest for leftovers. All Dudley would have to do it take the cake to his children.

Or so he thought. The moment he walked into the kitchen, he knew something was wrong. The cake had yet to be cut.

"Dudley," Diane said slowly with her back to him, leaning over the sink, "what the hell is this?"

Dudley opened his mouth to ask what she meant when he saw it. The opened envelope. Diane turned to face him, brow furrowed and her hands clutching the letter.

_I guess I have some explaining to do…_

"Dudley, if this letter is your idea of a joke, it isn't funny."

Dudley made his way over to his wife, "I know it isn't funny Diane…because this isn't a joke…that letter is real."  _Well that sounded convincing Dudley_ , he reprimanded himself.

"Have you even read this letter Dudley?" Diane said in a heated tone, forehead wrinkled in frustration.

"Er, well…no I havn't" Dudley realized how lame he must sound to his wife as she shoved the letter to his chest.

"Read it. Out loud." She said through gritted teeth as she turned her back to him, focusing on the cake.

Dudley looked at the letter, reading its contents for the first time ever.

"Dear Mr. Dursley,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours Sincerely,

Neville Longbottom

Deputy Headmaster"

Dudley could feel his throat tightening. He had always known what the letter meant, but to actually _read_ it…he could feel a swelling in his chest, was that pride? It must have been, he could never feel anything else for his son. Sure, magic had never been in Dudley's comfort zone, but he wasn't about to let that stop his son from being everything he could.

"Well?" Diane's emotionless voice cut through Dudley's revelry. Although her back was still to him, he knew that his wife was expecting an answer.

"I know you'll never believe me, but Hogwarts," Dudley paused.  _That_  was the name of the school Harry had gone to? "Hogwarts is a real school."

Diane sliced the cake a little harder than needed, hitting the plate with a  _thwack._  "Where is it?"

"I don't know."

_Thwack_ "What's it like?"

"I don't know."

_Thwack "_ Will William learning to do virgin sacrifices at this so called  _school?_ " That last question was more sarcastic than anything else, but it made Diane's point.

Dudley sighed, "That I'm pretty sure he won't be doing that."

"And how would you know? You don't seem to know anything about this school. Dudley, this is a horrible joke and I won't let you play it on William."  _Thwack._

Dudley made his way over to his wife, "I never went to Hogwarts, but I swear to you Diane, this is no joke. You saw my parents' reactions, and you know that my parents could never play a joke to save their lives."

Diane suddenly spun around, pointing a very chocolate covered knife at Dudley's chest.

"Don't. You. Dare. Lie. To. My. Face. Dudley. Dursley." With each word, the tip of Diane's knife clicked against the button of Dudley's polo, making her point that much clearer.

Dudley looked evenly at Diane, "I would never lie to you Diane."

Diane pointed to the letter that laid on the counter, "Then swear to me that everything in that letter is true, that this isn't a sick joke you want to play on our son."

Without breaking eye contact with his wife, Dudley took a deep breath, "This isn't a joke. I swear to you that Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a real school and that the reason they contacted William is because he's been accepted, because he's a wizard."

A tense moment hung in the kitchen as Diane looked into Dudley's eyes, searching for something. She must have found it, because the tense gaze in her eyes soften. The knife lowered to her side as her breaths became deeper, trying to calm herself. "He's a wizard?"

"I'm a what?" Both Dudley and Diane jolted at the third voice, turning to face William, who was standing in the doorway.

"Mom? Dad?" Will looked at his parents, unsure what to say. Then his eyes caught sight of his opened letter, and before either parent could stop him, the 11 year old took the parchment letter. His blue eyes widened as he read though the words of the letter. "Dad, you just swore that this is true didn't you?"

Dudley nodded dumbly at his son.

William looked up at his parents, "I don't know where to start…there's so much I don't know."

Dudley sighed, "Unfortunately, I don't think I can explain everything as well as you might want…the only person I know that could help us is my cousin, and I haven't heard from him since-"

But Dudley was interrupted by the sound of rustling feathers and the hoot of the second owl that night. The three Dursleys turned to look at the snowy owl that had just landed on the kitchen counter.

_Wait,_  Dudley thought to himself,  _Harry had a white owl like that…_  That's when Dudley saw it. A small charm around one of the owl's legs, almost like a dog tag. But all Dudley saw was the small lightning bolt on one side.  _Just like Harry's scar. Could he have known that we needed him?_  Dudley decided not to think too hard on that. Magic had explained a lot in his life; maybe it was just another instance that he just shouldn't question.

"William, get me a pen and paper please." Dudley said quietly to his son, trying not to scare off the bird. Will nodded before rushing from the kitchen.

Diane looked at Dudley, "You have a cousin?"

Dudley nodded at his wife, "Yes, that's how I know about all this. And I think that's his owl that's on our counter. He knows I need to contact him…" Dudley trailed off as Will came back with the paper and pen. "Thanks Will." Stealing another glance at the owl on the counter, Dudley quickly began writing. But how could he explain to his cousin everything that had happened? Would Harry even respond? Dudley's heart was pounding in his chest as he folded the letter and quickly scrawled Harry's name as well as his own address. Did he need a stamp? Dudley had no clue as he looked at the owl.

"Could you take this to Harry Potter please?" He must have looked so foolish to his family, talking to an owl like that. But to his surprise, the owl took the letter from Dudley's hand in its own beak before taking off out the window at break neck speeds.

"Dudley, you have some explaining to do." Diane said behind him.

Yes, yes he did.


	4. The Rest of You

_That's odd; Archimedes never takes off like that…_  Harry James Potter mused as he watched the spot on the sky that his owl had taken off towards.

It was odd how much Archimedes looked like his old owl Hedwig, but the only other thing the two had in common was the fact that they had both been gifts. Hedwig had been a birthday present from his first friend in the wizarding world, while Archimedes had been an apology gift from none other than Percy Weasley. The redhead had felt so bad about the way he had acted during the war that he had given Harry the snowy owl shortly after Harry and Ginny were married.

Harry should have expected that any owl of Percy Weasley would be just as strict as he was. Harry remembered one of the first times he was writing a letter to Ron using Archimedes and the owl had pecked his hand for misspelling the word 'eternity'. Needless to say, Harry's spelling had improved greatly ever since he had received Archimedes.

Another thing that differed from Harry's first owl was the fact that Archimedes liked to be on a schedule. He liked to be fed twice daily, once at 7:18 in the morning and again at 4:48 in the afternoon. He always seemed to throw a fit if ever Harry was late during either of these feeding times, but if he was early, the owl refused to eat until the correct time. And every day, without fail, Archimedes would take a flight to stretch his wings that lasted from 1:37 in the afternoon until 4:30. Harry would never know what the owl chose those times; all he knew was that Archimedes had a reason for that.

But here he was, at 4:48, and instead of eating, the snowy owl had taken off at breakneck speeds only a magical owl could manage. Out of all the things that confused Harry about this owl, that was the top of his list.

"What are you looking at Harry?" Harry turned to look at his wife, Ginny. The redhead had come up to his study just moments after Archimedes took off, most likely to tell him dinner was almost ready.

"Archimedes just left…at feeding time of all times. He's never done that before, I wonder what made him do that…" The green eyed man murmured, but his wife heard him all the same.

"Well did you need him for anything?" The former Weasley woman folded her arms against her chest as she leaned on the door frame of the study.

Harry chuckled, looking at his wife, "No, not really."

"Then don't worry Harry, Archimedes always knows when he's needed."

"I know, I guess it just bothers me that he's out of his schedule…"

Ginny arched an eyebrow, "Harry James Potter, I specifically went through the trouble of making treacle tart for you and you're more concerned your owl's schedule? Get over here so I can hex some sense into you!" The fiery haired woman drew her wand threateningly. But this action only made Harry laugh.

"You make a very good point Mrs. Potter. It would be a shame to waste a good treacle tart wouldn't it?" Harry stepped away from his desk and made his way to his wife, wrapping an arm around her, "Shall we go eat then?"

Ginny tried to keep her stern face, but the twitching at the corners of her mouth, as well as the signature Weasley reddening at the ears, told Harry that all was forgiven.

"You can be a right git when you want to, you know that Harry?" Ginny remarked as the couple made their way to their dining room.

Harry smiled. Yeah, he knew.

* * *

"James! What have I told you about transfiguring your peas?" Ginny scolded her eldest boy, James.

The auburn haired boy smiled sheepishly, "Not to?"

Harry tried not to laugh at the 'serious' conversation his wife and son were having, but honestly. The idea of a mother scolding her child for transfiguring peas into carrots just made him chuckle.

An elbow in his ribs reminded him that laughing while Ginny was reprimanding. "Be careful dad, or it'll be you she yells at next."

Harry looked at his youngest son, Albus, and smiled. While his brother looked like he was more Weasley than Potter, Albus was the spitting image of his father, right down to the small circle glasses and everything.

Harry shared a wink with Albus while Ginny still chastised James, "You excited for Hogwarts Al?"

The smaller Potter boy smiled, "Yeah! I can't wait to get my wand and my books! I heard that they released the newest edition of  _Hogwarts: A History_  to include the Battle of Hogwarts and the newer paintings as well as the memorials."

Ok, maybe Albus wasn't  _exactly_  like Harry. But who would have guessed that a Potter boy would have such a love of books? And now that he had his list of required materials, he would be begging Harry to go to Diagon Alley nearly every day. As much as Harry liked how the early delievery for Hogwarts letters helped parents of new students, it could drive him a little crazy with how much time he had to keep his children from driving him mad.

"But why do you need the book Al when you're going there?" Both green eyed men looked at the youngest Potter, Lily.

Harry smiled softly. Lily looked almost exactly like her namesake, save for the emerald eyes her grandmother had. But Harry didn't mind, she was still his little brown-eyed girl.

"Because Lily, it's nice to know what's behind what people see." Al smiled, Harry just rolled his eyes.

But Lily wasn't paying attention to her brother anymore, instead she pointed at the window, "Look! There's Archimedes!"

Harry whipped his head around so fast he thought he heard his neck crack. Sure enough, there was the punctual snowy owl making his way back to the Potter compound.

Ginny's brow furrowed, "If that owl lands in my dinner, so help me…" But no one hear the Potter matriarch's complaining as Archimedes landed on Harry's shoulder like he always did.

"There's a letter for you, dad!" James all but shouted, even though he was sitting across the table from his father.

Harry looked at his owl, surprised to find that instead of the message being tied around his foot like normal, Archimedes was holding the paper in his mouth. Another oddity was that the letter was made from what looked like white printer paper instead of parchment.

Brow furrowed, Harry gently took the paper from the beak of the snowy owl and looked at the name written on the front in ball point pen. He saw his name in the middle, that wasn't a big surprise, but in the corner…

_Dudley Dursley_

_16 Chestnut Avenue_

_Workingham, England_

Harry's eyes widened to the point he could have sworn they were going to pop out.  _Dudley?_

"Harry?" Ginny asked hesitantly, tearing Harry's eyes from the piece of paper, "Harry, who's it from?"

Finding that his mouth was dry, Harry only shook his head as he opened the folded note to read what his cousin had to say over all the years they hadn't seen each other,

_Harry,_

_I know I'm probably the last person that you were expecting to hear from, but you're the only person that I trust._

_My son Will is a wizard. He just received his letter to Hogwarts tonight._

_Obviously, Dad wasn't thrilled…he stormed out on us. Mom seemed better, but only time will tell._

_My wife and both my kids are confused and I can't give them the information they need to feel safe about the magical world._

_You're the only person I trust to teach my family about this and I know Will would look up to you._

_I know I haven't given you any reason to want to help me, but I don't know what to do._

_Dudley_

Harry wasn't sure what to be more surprised, the fact that Dudley wrote complete sentences or the fact that he had written Harry via owl. _This couldn't possibly be Dudley…_  the green eyed man reread the letter. The part about uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia sounded completely believable, but was Dudley still the same, smaller version of Vernon? Dudley hated him just as much as the old man did.

_"I don't hate you..."_  Harry remembered the last time they had seen each other. It had been before Harry had gone after the Horcruxes...almost 20 years ago...20 years was a long time, people could change. But people could also be just as stubborn in their ways. The Dursley's probably still called him a freak.

_No…Dudley used the words 'wizard' and 'magical world' instead of calling it 'those people'…surely that means something…I should at least check...  
_

"Harry." Ginny called again, forcing him to look at her, "What's wrong? Who wrote?"

Harry gulped, "My cousin Dudley."

Ginny paled, "Kids, go play outside for a bit."

"But mum-"

"No buts, James. Go outside." Ginny all but shooed the children outside before turning back to Harry, "Dudley? Are you sure, Harry?"

Harry shook his head, handing the letter to Ginny, "I haven't spoken to him in nearly 20 years. It could be him, but I don't know."

It took a moment for Ginny to read through the letter, "His son is a wizard? Shouldn't Neville have delivered it in person? Will is a muggleborn afterall."

"I don't know, I'll have to talk to Neville about it when I get the chance." Harry rubbed his temples.

They sat in silence for a moment, "So..." Ginny said finally, "What are you going to do?"

* * *

"Dudley, who is this cousin of yours?" Diane demanded as the family sat down in the family room, presents forgotten.

Marigold looked at her father, "Daddy has a cousin?"

Dudley sighed, not knowing where to start.  _The beginning might be best…_  Suddenly he wished that the arm chair he was sitting in would swallow him up so he wouldn't have to tell his story. But as Mari bounced impatiently on his knee, he knew he had to say something.

"I was an only child, but I wasn't the only child in my house growing up." He looked from Will to Diane, "My cousin Harry came to live with us when he was a year old after his parents were killed."

He heard Diane's breath catch while Will had hardly moved, "He was an orphan? And your parents took him in?" Diane whispered.

Dudley scoffed, "According to my mom, he was left on our doorstep the night his parents died." It was only now that Dudley realized how odd this story sounded to an outsider, "Mom took him in because he was her sister's son, but…both my aunt Lily and uncle James were wizards, so my parents knew he would be a wizard too."

"Dad, wait-"

"Please William, let me finish." Dudley didn't mean to snap at his son, but he had to finish before it became too hard for him, "My parents have always had this fear of anything unnatural. For my dad, that fear turned into hatred more than anything else. So when Harry came, my father began to hate him and my mother didn't want anything to do with him…he was my cousin, but to a stranger, he seemed more like a servant." Here Dudley had to pause to breath, knowing his next words had to be careful, "It was so bad that Harry never had any cloths of his own, he always wore what I didn't want…for the first 11 years of his life, he lived in the storage closet under the stairs."

Diane gasped, "Dudley, tell me that isn't true!" her fists were tightly clenched. Will was just staring dumbstruck.

Mari on the other hand, let her unfiltered thoughts be heard, "That's not nice daddy!"

At the admonishment from his daughter, Dudley struggled not to let his voice crack, "I didn't know why I got spoiled while Harry was neglected, I was too self-centered and spoiled to care. I happily played along with my parent's game of tormenting Harry…" He shook his head, "Harry didn't even know why our family was so horrible to him. The only thing that kept my parents fear and hatred alive were all the unexplained incidences revolving around him."

"What do you mean dad?" Will looked at his dad, still more in shock than anything else, though he was a bit paler.

"Strange things always happened when Harry was involved, especially when he was upset or scared. Like whenever he was being chased on the playground by bullies, he would somehow end up on the roof of a building; or if a teacher punished him, their hair would turn blue-" Dudley stopped, seeing how Will's hands were shaking. "William?"

Will bit his lip, "Mr. Wilson's toupee…I was so mad about him punishing me for having one white sock…Dad, he got second degree burns on his head! I hurt him!"

Diane hugged her oldest child close, "Will, it's alright, we know you didn't mean to…"

Dudley watch his wife and son, but his daughter was watching him, "What happened to Harry, daddy?"

_Mari's too smart for her own good…_  "Harry got a letter, just like Will's, Mari. But my dad tore it up before he got to read it. My dad knew that the letter was from Hogwarts, and that if he went, he would learn magic. He didn't want that. But the thing about wizards is that they seem to know if they're being ignored, because the letters kept coming in massive amounts. But my dad still refused to let Harry read his letter. It got so bad that we ran away to a remote cabin near the coast." He chuckled despite himself. "And you know what happened then?"

Mari grinned, "What?"

"A giant came to the cabin."

Both Diane and Will's jaws dropped, "A giant?"

Dudley nodded, "he was massive, able to knock the door clean off its hinges. He even took the shotgun my dad had and turned it into a pretzel."

Will was leaning forward in his seat, "Why was the giant there?"

"To give Harry his letter personally…after that, Harry began to learn magic, and my father hated him even more. He even locked Harry in his room one summer."

Diane looked at the sorry look on her husband's face, "What changed?"

Dudley shared a look with his wife, "I was a horrible person to Harry. But things changed when we were 15. I can't explain exactly what happened, but Harry saved my life even after all I had done to him. It made me realize what a horrible person I was…in a way, Harry made me want to be someone my father wasn't. After Harry left us, I strove to be a better person."

"But why did Harry leave? What happened when you were 15?" Will was full of question, and Dudley was afraid that he wouldn't be able to answer them all.

Luckily, Dudley was saved when the family heard the now familiar rustle of feathers.

"Mr. Owl is here!" Mari jumped off her father's lap and rushed to greet the white owl.

_Harry responded…_  Dudley was surprised to say the least as Diane took the letter from the owl slowly. Unlike last time, the owl took off as soon as it's message was delivered, meaning that this message would be the last.

Diane was oddly pale as she handed Dudley the message.

_I'll be there at 10. Wait for me on your front lawn._

_HJP_

Dudley's eyes quickly darted to the clock on the wall.

9:59 p.m.

"We have to go in the front yard!" Dudley called to his family, already halfway out the door.

Diane was right behind him, holding Mari, "Why the front yard?"

Dudley stood in the middle of their grass, "I have no idea…" He looked back at Diane, at their house, and most importantly, at Will, who was standing on the porch. "What's wrong Will?"

Will shook his head, "What if he's mean to me because of what grandpa did? What if he tells me I shouldn't study magic?"

The older blonde man looked at his son, "Will, let me tell you something. Harry is one of the most selfless, kind people I know. He would never-"

A car backfired some ways up the road, it's loud crackling echoing through the night.  _No…there are no cars anywhere near here…_  That's when he saw it.

And by it, he meant him.

The Dursley family was able to see a tall, dark figure making his way down the street. He wore a dark cloak that billowed around his body as he walked, wearing the hood up to conceal his face.

"Daddy I'm scared…" Mari whispered from Diane's arms. Diane nodded subconsciously, taking a step backwards. Will looked like he was contemplating running back inside.

Dudley instead moved off the front lawn and onto the sidewalk to meet Harry as the cloaked man got closer and closer. He was only a house away from where Dudley was standing. Dudley could feel his heart racing as his cousin got closer.

Only to have the cloaked man walk right past him as he made his way down the sidewalk.

Confused, Dudley turned around and called out to the wizard, "Harry?"

At the sound of his name, the cloaked wizard turned to face him, "…By Merlin, Dudley?"

Further confused, Dudley nodded, "Yes, it's me…you told me to meet you on the front lawn didn't you?"

"Yes yes, I did, but where's the rest of you?" Harry said, still keeping his hood up as he stepped closer.

Dudley raised an eyebrow, "The…rest of me?"

Harry's hood nodded, "Of course." From beneath Harry's cloak, a pale hand reached out.

And poked Dudley's stomach.

Suddenly it all made sense to the Dursley man.

He had been 300 pounds heavier last time Harry had seen him.


	5. What Dudley Didn't Know

Both cousins spent the longest time just staring at each other. Or at least Dudley thought Harry was staring at him, it was a little hard to tell with the hood of Harry's cloak covering his face. The billowing his cloak did in the wind didn't help Harry's aura of mystery. For all Dudley knew, Harry could pull his wand out and slay him where he stood. What would happen to Diane and the kids then?

Finally Harry spoke, trying to hide a sheepish chuckle, "I guess it would be redundant for me to say that I hardly recognize you." Harry's voice seemed as unsure as Dudley felt. Had Harry been just as nervous about the meeting as Dudley had been? That thought put the blonde man at ease. "That's a lot of weight to lose…"

Dudley could only nod dumbly, watching his family from the corner of his eye. Diane still held Mari close to her, her brows furrowed in a way Dudley recognized as his wife trying not to look frightened. Mari was hugging her mother's neck as tightly as she could, her faced buried in Diane's chest. William hadn't moved from his spot on the deck, but Dudley wasn't sure if that was because his son was standing his ground against Harry or if he was petrified and couldn't move from his spot. Dudley's heart went out to his son, who wasn't even sure of who he was anymore.

Harry spoke again, softer this time, "You look good Dudley."

The blonde turned his attention back to his cousin, "I wish I could say the same, but…"

The wizard laughed, "I suppose I do look rather intimidating stalking around in my cloak like this. No wonder your wife and children are scared stiff," At this, Diane huffed indignantly, "Perhaps we should continue this inside? I would hate to make your children stay outside too long this late at night."

Finally Diane spoke up, "Perhaps we should, the front lawn is no place to be discussing what we're speaking about." The tone that Diane used told Dudley that Harry had a lot to make up for if he wanted to make a good impression.

* * *

 

Dudley was shutting the door behind Harry as the family made their way back into their house when Harry made an unusual request.

"Would you mind shutting the drapes please? I wouldn't want anyone to see me here." Harry kept the hood of his cloak, which Dudley could now see was an emerald green, up over his head to cover his face.

Diane furrowed her brow, not sure what to think of her husband's odd cousin, making sure to keep her youngest away from him until she was sure.

Dudley just stared at his cousin while Will went to shut the curtains to the family room. Why was Harry unwilling to show his face to strangers? A chill went through Dudley's veins.  _Surely those people aren't still after him! Why would he come here if he was still in danger? What if he puts the kids in danger?_  While Diane followed Will with Mari into the family room, Dudley stopped Harry, speaking in a urgent whisper, "You aren't still in danger are you, from  _those people?_  You didn't have to come…"

Harry turned his cloaked face to Dudley, "Don't worry Dudley, I haven't had a dark witch or wizard after me in 19 years…it's the autograph hounds I'm avoiding."

"The what?" Dudley stared incredulously at his cousin, who promptly ignored the look and went into the family room. Dudley followed soon after, still slightly confused.

The moment Dudley walked into the family room, he knew tensions were high. Diane was sitting on the couch, Will and Mari on either side of her, staring at Harry. Harry stood across the room from Diane, staring right back.

"You have a lovely home, Mrs. Dursley." Harry said in attempt to be nice.

"It's Diane." The brunette said from her position on the couch, eyes not leaving Harry for a second. Dudley knew from experience that Diane was always reluctant to trust new people, and the fact Harry still wore that blasted cloak didn't help him look any less menacing.

But once again, it was Mari who broke the tension when she walked up to Harry, despite her mother's wishes. All eyes were on the smallest Dursley as she reached up and tugged on Harry's cloak.

"Why are you still wearing your coat? It's warm in here! Mommy always says it's rude to keep your outdoor cloths on inside." The little brunette quipped, playing with the material of Harry's robe.

To the surprise of everyone in the room, Harry laughed, "I suppose it is rude for me to keep my hood up. I guess you could say I'm just a little shy about meeting all of you." After a moment, Harry reached up and brought his hood down. Dudley had to move to the other side of the room to finally get a good look at his cousin after all these years.

Harry still had that head of thick black hair, and even after almost 20 years, he still hadn't managed to tame it. His face was still pale, but it wasn't as sickly as Dudley remembered it, and his glasses were a pair of tidy square rimmed bifocals instead of the coke bottle circular ones that constantly had to be taped in place. His eyes were still a bright green to match his cloak.  _And the ink of the letter…_ Dudley mused. And of course, he still had that odd scar on his forehead.

When Harry unclasped the gold buckle at his neck that secured his cloak, Dudley was able to see that his cousin was surprising plainly dressed. The blonde half expected…well, he didn't know what he was expecting, but seeing Harry in a green sweater and jeans was…almost a letdown.

"Ooooo, pretty!" The little Dursley girl giggled as her hands played with the fabric.

Harry's glasses framed eyes seemed to twinkle with excitement. "Did you know that cloak is magical?"

Dudley watched as his daughters eyes went wide, "Really?"

The older man nodded, "Of course! Watch," Harry smiled as he threw the cloak around Marigold's smaller body. But to the amazement of the entire family, by the time Harry fastened the pin the green cloak looked like it had been made for Mari's small body instead of the older wizard's bigger frame.

The little girl giggled happily, skipping around the room in the cloak, eager to play dress up.

Harry smiled, leaning against the door frame.

Dudley looked at his cousin, "Did you do that or was the cloak really enchanted?"

Harry chuckled, "Now that you'll have to find out yourself."

The family spent the next few minutes just watching the youngest Dursley play with her new favorite toy. But after a while, Mari became more interested in Harry again. After she was done with the cloak, the little girl pointed to Harry's chest, which had a giant yellow 'H' knit into the hunter green sweater, and asked "What's that?"

Dudley watched as the bespectacled man knelt to his daughter level, "This?" Harry asked, picking at imaginary lint that had gathered on the 'H', "This was a gift my mother-in-law made me. I should know, it's the same every year." He added with a chuckle.

 _Harry was married?_  This caught Dudley off guard. To be sure, the blonde stole a glance at his cousin's left hand. Sure enough, there was a gold band around the fourth finger.  _I guess I shouldn't be so surprised,_ I  _got married after all…._

"Oh…" Mari nodded, then looked up at the dark haired wizard. "Does she think you'll forget your name?"

"Mari!" Diane whispered harshly to her daughter. But Harry only smiled.

"It's quite alright, I know how inquisitive 8 year olds can be…"

Marigold huffed, "I'm 9 thank you very much!" To add to her statement, the little girl crossed her arms over her chest, much like her mother would when she was cross about something.

Harry smiled, humoring the young girl, "I am so terribly sorry miss…"

"Mari." The little brunette said proudly, "My real name is Marigold, but no one calls me that except when I'm in trouble."

It was then that Harry shared a look with Dudley, "Keeping up with tradition Dudley?" It was a simple statement, but both men knew it held importance to them, for some reason. Harry looked back at Mari, "You know, my daughter Lily is just around your age miss Mari-"

"You have children Mr. Potter?" Diane blurted, then blushed at how rude she sounded. But in all honesty, Dudley was thinking the same thing.  _Harry had_ kids _? And one of them was named Lily for pity's sake_ …

But Harry only smiled, "I have three wonderful children back home with their mother." The wizard reached behind him, retrieving a well worn wallet from his back pocket, "Here's a picture of us last Christmas." He added as he handed the picture to Diane.

Both Diane and Will looked at the picture before Diane dropped it, shrieking.

Dudley moved quickly to his wife, "What's wrong?" Harry hadn't cursed the picture had he?

But it was Will that responded, "They're moving!"

Dudley followed his son's line of sight, looking at the picture on the floor.

Sure enough, what at first seemed like any other picture was actually what looked like a home video…in a picture. Harry was standing with his arm around a auburn haired woman, probably his wife, and the two were laughing. A dark haired boy, maybe a few years older than Will, ran into the picture, throwing snowballs at two younger children. The youngest, Lily as Harry mentioned, ran behind her mother while another boy…

It was almost like looking at Harry as a child…everything was the same, sans the scar. And the fact that this smaller version of Harry was laughing in the picture, throwing snowballs back at his brother…It made Dudley sick to his stomach.

The real Harry chuckled, standing up straight, "I'm sorry about that. I should have mentioned that wizarding photos do that." A small blush crept up his cheeks as the wizard rubbed his neck.

There was a moment that no one spoke. Then "This is real isn't it? This isn't a dream?" Dudley was surprised how easily Will had fallen into the background. With all the commotion of seeing his cousin again, he forgot the reason why he called for Harry.

His son was a wizard.

"Yes, it's all real." The older wizard said as he approached the younger wizard. "You must be Will." A kind smile drifted across his face as the paler man extended his hand, "I'm Harry."

Will's blue eyes looked up at Harry's green ones, looking for something. He must have found it, because he took the older wizard's hand and gave it a firm shake. Dudley had a feeling that the handshake was more than his son accepting his cousin's greeting. It was almost like the two wizards had shared a bond, and by Will accepting the handshake; he was accepting a world and lifestyle he knew nothing about.

Diane seemed to notice the tense moment, for she stood up, "I'll just make some tea then shall I before we start?" She added as she made her way to the kitchen, Mari following her begging to help.

Dudley watched as Harry sat down in an armchair and Will seemed to immediately take the spot on the couch closest to him. If Dudley hadn't known that Harry was only there to help Will, he might have been jealous of his cousin's ability to charm people.

But what Harry said next surprised Dudley, "It's still your birthday isn't it Will?"

The smaller blonde nodded, "Yeah, it is."

Harry smiled, "Good, because I would hate to give you a belated birthday gift after we only just met." With that, Harry began to rummage through his wallet again.

Will quickly tried to make Harry feel less guilty, "Oh no, that's alright. You don't have to…do…that…" Dudley watched as his son's eyes grew wider as his sentence trailed off, and he could understand why. Harry had somehow managed to fit his entire arm up to his shoulder into his wallet, rummaging for…something.

"How are you doing that?" Will asked, amazed.

Harry only smiled, "Magic."

"Of course it is." Dudley said tiredly. Harry looked at him before drawing out a small package from his wallet.

"Want some chocolate Dudley? It always makes me feel better when I need a pick me up." The dark haired wizard tossed the package to Dudley before resuming his search for…whatever it was, in his wallet.

The older blonde stared at the chocolate in his hands, "Harry, I'm sure you remember what happened last time I had wizarding sweets…" Will only stared at his father, wondering what  _had_  happened last time.

Harry only chuckled, still shoulder-deep in his wallet, "Don't worry, that's prank-free. Its Honeydukes chocolate; it's arguably the best chocolate in the world. Go on, try it." His cousin gave him a sweet smile.

Will was torn between the two men, one with his entire arm in a wallet the size of his father's hand and the other seemingly afraid of chocolate. But just as Dudley took the first bite of chocolate (which was delicious), Harry seemed to have found what he had been looking for.

"Here we go Will, now this is only part of your gift, but I thought your whole family would like to have it for reference." Will's brow was wrinkled in confusion as the older wizard brought out a massive tome out of his wallet.

"How did you do that?" The three men looked over at Diane, holding a tea tray with Mari right on her heels.

"Magic." They all responded.

Diane rolled her eyes. "Of course, but what is that?" She asked as she set down the tea tray, gesturing to the book.

Harry smiled, "This is everything you'll need to know about Hogwarts the school. I thought it might help not only Will, but all of you." Harry set the large book in Will's lap. The boy looked at the worn cover of the tome.  _Hogwarts: A History._

Will was quiet for a moment, "It's so big…" To this, Harry laughed.

"Well I certainly don't expect you to read everything from the beginning. That's a lot of history to retain, all the way to the 9th century." But Harry's grin softened at Will's overwhelmed expression, "Try reading from chapter 17 on, that might prove to help you a bit more about how the school runs-"

"Mr. Potter." Harry's gazed was instead directed at Diane, who was still kneeling by the tea tray on the coffee table.

"Please, call me Harry."

Diane shook her head, "Whatever I call you, I need to know what my son is getting into. This is a school of witchcraft!"

"Yes, I suppose the connotations of witchcraft are rather negative these days..." Harry sighed, "You weren't supposed to be surprised by this letter. I don't know what happened, but one of the professors was meant to deliver Will's message personally, so he would have been answering your questions. I'll try my best, but-"

"I need to know for certain that there isn't anything evil or that Will isn't going to be doing virgin sacrifices or…anything like that." Diane interrupted.

Harry's face sobered up, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, "I won't lie to you Diane, I can't promise that there is no evil in the wizarding world. I don't know what Dudley has told you, but my parents were killed by a very dark wizard."

Diane stifled a gasp, but in doing so, knocked over a cup a tea she had been pouring, "N-no, he hadn't mentioned that…" Husband and wife shared a brief glance before the family looked back at Harry.

Dudley watched as his cousin rubbed his eyes from under his glasses before continuing, "I can't promise that the wizarding world is free from all evil, but to be honest, you can't promise that the muggle world is free of evil either."

Mari giggled, looking up at Harry, "Muggle?"

The emerald eyed wizard gave a small smile to the little girl, "That's the name we magical folk give people that can't use magic. You call us wizards, we call you muggles." All joking aside, the older wizard turned his gaze to Diane, "I will tell you this, Hogwarts is about helping young witches and wizards control and strengthen their magic for good, never evil."

Will fidgeted, thinking back to the incident with Mr. Wilson, "How do you know that?"

Harry looked at his cousin's oldest boy, "Because I wouldn't be doing my job right if I didn't teach my students how to use their magic for good."

Dudley was surprised to say the least, "You teach at Hogwarts Harry?"

Harry smiled, "Yes, I'll be one of Will's professors when he attends Hogwarts."

At this piece of news, Will sat straight up, "What do you teach? Is it hard like math?"

The older man chuckled, "I don't think it's a terribly hard subject, but it is important. When you attend Hogwarts, I'll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I'll teach you everything you need to know to keep you from doing everything your mother's afraid you'll do."

Diane rolled her eyes, "So you teach at Hogwarts? Does that mean you know some of the professor's Will would have?"

Harry nodded, looking at Will, "Of course, I'm actually very good friends with Neville Longbottom-"

"Hey! That's the guy who wrote my letter!" Will interjected. Harry nodded again with a smile.

"That's the one. He'll be teaching Will Herbology, which is the study of plants and how some plants have magical and medicinal purposes. There's also Charms and Transfiguration and Potions and even Flying-"

Will was almost out of his seat, "Wizards can fly?"

Harry laughed loudly, "Oh no, that's just impractical. We use brooms of course."

The Dursley family was dead silent, trying to figure out if Harry was joking or not. While they were deciding, the grandfather clock in the hallway began to chime.

Harry stood up, "Oh my, it's getting late. Perhap we should finish this another time…"

"Wait!" Will all but shouted, leaping out of his seat despite the large book in his lap, "You can't go yet! I still have so many questions!"

Harry looked down at Will, pondering for a second. Then he spoke, "Well, if you're parents don't mind, you're always welcome to our house. In fact, Ginny and I would be delighted if you were to join us for dinner tomorrow."

Dudley looked at Diane. Diane looked at Dudley. Mari just looked at Harry, eyes wide and filled with awe.

"REALLY? We get to go to a wizard's house? Hooray!" The little girl began to dance around the family room while her brother just looked from Harry to his parents, waiting for their answer.

Dudley sighed, exhausted, "I guess we get to go to a wizard's house."


	6. What Dudley Never Heard

Dudley watched as Mari squealed happily, "Yay! We get to go to Mr. Harry's house!"

Harry smiled at the Dursley family, "Wonderful! I'll tell Ginny that you all will be coming tomorrow."

Diane nodded, picking Mari up from the floor, "Could you give us directions to your house? We won't have to take the train will we?"

At this, Harry laughed, "Oh no Diane, don't worry about trying to find our house. It'll just be easier if I come by tomorrow and pick you up…How does 4:30 sound?"

Dudley's heart almost stopped at the thought of Harry picking them up. Would he come through the fireplace like when those red haired wizards took Harry when they were 14? If so, would the green fire hurt Diane and Mari, even himself, for not being magical? Dudley didn't want to think about that possibility, but he knew he had to, especially if it could very well be a very real possibility.

"Uh Harry, how do you plan on picking us up?" Dudley felt like he must have sounded like a real idiot to his family, if the look on Will's face was anything to go by. But Dudley was quite aware of the various…alternative ways to travel, especially those used by wizards.

"Well I thought the car would be best," Harry said without missing a beat. "I'm pretty sure it will fit everyone."

 _Definitely feel like an idiot now…_  Dudley mused.  _But since when did wizards drive cars?_

But Diane was oblivious to her husband's embarrassment, "4:30 sounds just wonderful Harry." She extended her free hand to Harry, "I look forward to meeting your wife and children."

Harry shook Diane's hand happily, "And I'm sure Ginny will be happy to meet you, not to mention the fact that Lily and Mari will hit it off just fine."

Will shook Harry's hand after his mother, "Thanks for coming Professor Potter."

"You don't have to call me that," Harry chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "At least not until school begins."

Will reddened, "Right…sorry…"

Harry noted Will's embarrassment, but said nothing about the matter. Instead he turned his attention to Dudley, "Would you mind if I left from here?"

 _As opposed to…?_  Dudley just stared at his cousin, "Of course not, we won't make you go anywhere else…" He trailed off, not sure what his cousin was asking. At Dudley's confusion, Harry smiled.

"Great. Well, I will see you all tomorrow-" Harry stole another glance at the grandfather clock, "Today at 4:30 this afternoon. I look forward to having you in my home. I best be on my way-"

"Mr. Harry! Don't forget your coat!" Mari suddenly remembered that she was wearing said cloak. But as she reached for the clasp, Harry stopped her.

"Keep it. Just think of it as a gift for all those birthday's I've missed." The older wizard smiled at the little girl, whose eyes brightened happily. "And now, Dursley family, I bid you a good night." With that, Harry turned on his heel.

And was gone with a sharp  _crack_.

Mari stared at the spot Harry once stood, "Mr. Harry vanished!"

Diane's eyes were almost popping out of her skull, moving her lips dumbly to try and get them working again "I'll say…" she muttered.

Even Dudley was surprised, "He's never done that before..."

Will had taken a step back in shock, "Will I be able to do that?"

At this question, Diane just shook her head, "I don't know Will, but it is way past everyone's bedtime." Dudley watched as his wife struggled to keep from rolling her eyes at Mari's whining.

"But mum, I'm not tired!" The little girl fussed as Diane carried her upstairs, "It's the weekend, can't we stay up?"

Diane sighed, having heard this argument several times before, "We did stay up Mari, and now it's time to go to bed." Diane moved the 9 year old girl into her bedroom, Dudley close behind. Mother and daughter seemed to bicker the entire time Diane tried to get Mari ready for bed. Only Mari could make getting undressed look like a professional wrestling match…

Dudley came to his wife's rescue as they helped their daughter get ready for bed, "You may not be tired now Mari, but you better get sleep now so that when we go over to Harry's house, you have plenty of energy to play with Lily." At this, Mari paused, giving Diane the opportunity to get her daughter's nightgown onto her. "You don't want to be tired when you visit the wizard's house do you?"

Mari sat on her bed, quiet for a moment or two. "Is Lily nice daddy?" She said finally, swinging her legs, "What if she's mean?"

Dudley sat next to his daughter, "I'm pretty sure no daughter of Harry's would be mean." He said, kissing Mari's forehead, "Now please Mari, go to bed."

"But Dad…"

"No buts Mari." Dudley said sternly as he tucked his daughter into her bed, "Sleep tight pumpkin."

"I will dad." Mari said sweetly, making Dudley smile as he left her room slowly.

Once he turned out the light to his daughter's room, Dudley suddenly felt calm. This he could handle. He may not have been the best at explaining the world of magic to his family, but he could tuck in his daughter at night and make her feel loved and safe in her own bed. And as Dudley made his way down the hall into his own bedroom, he felt satisfied with himself as a father.

"Crazy day huh?" Diane said, snapping Dudley out of his thoughts. His wife was already under the covers of their bed, exhausted.

"Crazy doesn't even begin to cover it." Dudley muttered to his wife as he got ready for bed. Diane just watched her husband from her spot on the bed, too tired to move.

Finally, after watching her husband brush his teeth, Diane spoke again, "Will's going to be ok…isn't he?"

As Dudley laid beside his wife on their bed, he pondered his wife's question. Will was certainly a lovable young boy, and he always got along well in his classes. He never picked fights like Dudley had when he was young, and Will never had a problem making friends.

But would the magical world be the same as their world? Would Will be picked on for not knowing as much about magic as the other kids? Would he be able to catch up with all the other children in his classes after such a late start? What if he couldn't?

Dudley paused, catching up with his train of thought. Harry had been just like Will. Harry was a late starter learning about magic and he didn't know anything about magic before going to Hogwarts…and Harry was just fine.

"Yes Diane…Will is going to be more than ok." Husband smiled to his wife as the two turned out the lights and quickly fell asleep.

If only they had remembered that they had two children that should have been asleep

* * *

Will sat alone in the family room, not knowing what he wanted to do. He knew he should go to bed, but there was so much going through his mind…

Like the fact that not even 24 hours ago, he was just excited to be going to the zoo. Now he had to deal with the fact that he would be attending a school his parents had never heard of, away from all of his friends.

Oh, and the fact that he was a wizard.

 _A wizard?_  Will's head was running every thought at high speed,  _like Merlin or…or…Gandalf?_ The blonde boy shook his head, staring at the massive book left by his father's cousin. Maybe massive wasn't the right word, but Will couldn't possibly worry about the right word to describe his birthday gift.

After a few moments staring at the book, Willy opened the well worn book to the chapter Harry had told him to read from.

_Chapter 17_

  
_Hogwarts in the 20_ _th_ _Century_   


Will bit his lip, mentally wincing at the amount of history he was about to read, but pushed himself forward anyways. This book was Will's only way to learn about this school until he could talk to Harry again, and Will couldn't wait that long. He had to know  _now._

* * *

Will hadn't even noticed that almost an hour had passed since his family went to bed, and his eyes were still glued to the massive book in his lap trying to wrap his head around everything he had read.

The school was actually a castle in Scotland,  _At least now we know where it is…_  and it resided beside a lake and a forest. There was a village nearby that students could visit on certain weekends, which sounded nice enough to Will.

The school was divided into four houses, which sounded suspiciously to Will like fraternities at a university. Each house was special for a reason, like being smart or kind or brave or cunning…which Will didn't know if he was any of those things. Will was more concerned with the fact that boys and girls weren't separated into different houses. He didn't know how he felt about living in the same house as a girl…

Will was startled out of his thoughts as the fireplace in the room suddenly roared to life.  _I didn't do that did I?_  Will panicked, not knowing if he should wake his parents or not. Then Will noticed that the fire was turning a bright green and, despite his brain telling him otherwise, he moved closer, wanting to figure out how the flame was green.

The 11 year old boy was almost sitting on the hearth when a shape began to appear. Will squinted, trying to figure it out what it was. But soon the shape became more defined and Will recognized it as his dad's cousin Harry.

The face in the fire was surprised,  _"You're up still?"_

Will, stunned and not sure if he thought he was dreaming or not, only nodded. The fire face chuckled at his response.

" _I don't blame you Will."_

"This is another form of magic isn't it?" The blonde asked. Even though he should have felt silly for talking into a fireplace, Will found that he felt completely natural talking this way.

The fiery Harry nodded,  _"This is what we magical folk like to call 'Floo calling'"_

"Floo?"

" _Yes, Floo. It's called that because it uses Floo powder, a fine powder that turns any fireplace into a gateway between that and another fireplace."_

Will nodded again, "So if I used Floo powder, I could go from this fire place to say…your house?"

Harry smiled,  _"You know, you're catching on a lot faster than I did when I was your age."_

"But there's still so much I don't know! I just spent an hour and all I know is that Hogwarts is a castle with four houses-"

" _Will…"_

"What if I get to Hogwarts and I can't do anything? What if they tell me I'm no good and tell me to go back? What do I do then?"

" _Will…"_

"What if I don't make any friends? What if they hate me like grandpa hate me?"

" _William, look at me."_ Harry's stern tone was not lost even through the fire. Will looked at his future professor, trying not to show how scared he was, " _William, I know_ exactly _how you feel right now. When I received my letter, I felt like my entire life before that had been a lie. It took me an entire week of classes to make me feel at ease about my ability to learn magic."_

Will couldn't help it, "But I don't know anything about magic!"

" _Will, don't think that you are the first muggle born wizard."_  Harry's face said to Will kindly, _"There will be plenty of other young witches and wizards just like you, who have been special but, until recently, didn't know why."_

They sat in silence for a good few minutes, the younger wizard just thinking and the older wizard just waiting. Finally, Will spoke up, but his voice had lost much of its volume.

"Dad…dad said that weird things happened to you when you were a kid. When you were upset or scared, unexplained things would happen. He said that Grandpa hated you for that…"

Harry listened quietly to Will, then took another moment to collect his thoughts, " _These things have been happening to you too haven't they Will? Things you could never explain but you still felt like it was your doing?"_

Despite how hard he tried, Will sniffled, "I remember, one time my teacher Mr. Wilson yelled at me for only having one white sock…I thought it was a stupid rule, but he made me stand in the corner…I was so mad…his hair caught on fire! It was out of nowhere…first the kids started laughing, but then he started screaming…it wasn't funny anymore. He ended up with second degree burns on his head." A sickening thought crossed Will's mind, "I'm not a bad wizard am I?"

Will half expected Harry to be cross with him, but the older wizard only smiled,  _"No Will, you aren't a bad wizard. These instances of accidental magic are completely normal. That's one reason why witches and wizards go to Hogwarts, the more you train your magic, the more control you have over your magic."_

"So I'm not a bad person for setting my teachers hair on fire?"

" _Not if I'm not a bad person for accidently setting free a python on your father's 11_ _th_ _birthday."_

Will stared at Harry for the longest time.

" _True story, I swear."_

"Oh no…I believe you…I think" Will just sat, trying to collect his thoughts, "What's your class like?"

" _My class?"_  Harry paused as he thought of how best to talk about his subject, " _Well the key word for my class is the fact that is a defense class. I focus on teaching students how to confront unfriendly curses, hexes, spells, creatures ect._ if _they should ever need to."_

" _Will_  I ever need to fight off dark spells?" Will asked in alarm. He didn't want to be fighting dark magic, he was only 11!

" _You never know. But I do like to make my class fun and do mock dueling, which is basically having partners take turns throwing spells at each other to practice the counterspell."_

Will nodded. That didn't sound so bad… "What's Transfiguration?"

" _It's exactly how it sounds. Transfiguration is the art of taking something and turning it into something else."_

The young wizard brightened, "Like turning lead into gold?" He could get used to that magic, heck, anyone could…

Harry laughed, " _If it were possible, it would be illegal. We can't have fake money going around. It would be like counterfeiting pounds, that isn't a very good thing to do."_

Will looked down sheepishly, "No, I guess it isn't…"

The older wizard smiled softly at the boy,  _"It's alright Will, you'll get the hang of things. Besides, it's still May and school doesn't start until September. You have plenty of time to read up on everything and ask me whatever you need."_

"But I want to know now. What are the houses like? Are they nice? They don't make you go streaking do they? I don't want to do that…" Will trailed off as he heard Harry laughing over him. The blonde blushed in embarrassment.

Harry chuckled,  _"I'm sorry Will, but looking back on it, I felt almost the same way. I never thought of them like fraternities though…they are kind of similar now that I think about it…"_ Seeing the look on Will's face, Harry decided to better explain himself,  _"When you get to Hogwarts, the first thing you'll do will be Sorting. What this does is places you in the house that you belong in and the house that will help you succeed. It's almost like a personality test."_

"So the test will tell me whether I'm brave or cunning or not?" Will bit his lip. He wasn't sure what house he would be in based on what he knew about himself.

" _Well there's that. Each house is known for something special. But the Sorting is only the beginning. The house you get sorted into will be your family while you're away from home. When you do something good, you win your house points, while if you get in trouble you'll lose points. Every year there's a competition and at the end of the year, the house with the most points wins. But of course its more than just winning points, During the year, you'll see your housemates everyday. You'll be in classes with them, you'll eat with them, and you'll be on Quidditch teams together-"_

"What's Quidditch?" Will asked, his brow furrowed in confusion. Harry smiled brightly.

" _Why, Quidditch is a wizarding sport! It's similar to football except that it's played on brooms."_

"Wait, you were serious when you said that wizards ride on brooms? Should I start practicing in the back yard with our yard broom?"

Harry's fire-head shook from side to side,  _"You can't fly on just any broom. It has to be a racing broom, designed for fast flying. If you want, I can let you ride one of my son's brooms while you're over for dinner."_

"Really?" Will beamed, "You'd let me do that?"

Harry's smile widened,  _"Of course. I remember when I was your age, the first time I rode a broom was one of the most liberating feelings I've ever felt."_

Will bent forward, closer to the fire, "What's it feel like?"

"… _Like flying?"_

"Oh…right." Will fought to keep a blush a bay. But Harry just kept smiling.

" _It's getting late, perhaps you should get to bed. You have a lot to think over, don't you?"I_

Will nodded. He  _did_  have a lot to think over.

" _I'll see you at dinner Will. I look forward to it." Harry said, "You're going to be a wonderful wizard, I can tell."_

"Really?" Will's heart jumped into his throat as the older wizard nodded. Happy, Will stood up to go to bed.

" _Will."_

The blonde stopped, turning back to face the fireplace. Harry's smile wasn't as bright as before, but it was just as kind.

" _Will, you said you were afraid of not making any friends, right?"_

Embarrassed, Will nodded as he scuffed his foot against the carpet.

" _I want to let you know that you don't have to worry about that. I can promise that you'll have at least one friend at Hogwarts."_

"Who?" Will felt bad for pestering the man with so many questions so early in the morning, but he had to know.

" _My youngest boy, Albus, he'll be starting Hogwarts with you. He says he can't wait to meet you tonight at dinner."_ The Hogwarts professor smiled, which Will returned tenfold.

"Thanks Mr. Potter! I'll see you tonight at dinner!"

" _Good night Will."_

"Good night."

The fire in the family room went out as suddenly as it had started, but Will was halfway to his room by the time the fire died. As William Jeremiah Dursley lay in his bed that night, his dreamed for the first time of dreams where he waved a magic wand and rode on a broomstick.


	7. We're Off to See the Wizard

"Mum! Stop fussing with my hair!"

"Hold still so I can finish! Then I can stop fussing!"

"Ow! Don't pull my hair!"

"Stop squirming and I won't pull your hair!"

"Mum! Where are my shoes?"

"They aren't in your closet?"

"Oh…found them!"

"Why didn't you check there first?"

Dudley watched the scene of chaos unfolded in front of his eyes. Diane valiantly attempted to tie Mari's hair up with a ribbon while Will struggled to find the rest of his outfit. To be honest, he felt that all their effort in their appearance would only be for nothing. Wizards didn't care if Mari was wearing her best dress, the one she wore that Easter, or if Will was in a suit. He knew that Diane had spent at least an hour styling her short hair and had tried on more than five outfits before settling on her favorite navy blouse and black pencil skirt. He knew that Will had double and triple checked his appearance after he had combed his hair and he knew that Diane would fight Mari until the little girl let her mother place the bright pink bow in her brown locks.

Dudley knew that the wizards didn't wear suits or pencil skirts and no matter what his family wore, they would look ridiculous.

Dudley knew this, but he didn't dare tell his wife that.

"Honey!" Shook from his thoughts, Dudley looked at his wife, who had finally managed to fix their daughter's hair. "Could you please check and see if Harry's here yet? It's almost 4:30…"

"I've got it mum!" Will shouted from the top of the stairway. Dudley could see the joy on his son's face as the boy slide down the banister, despite his mother's protests. The 11 year old wizard threw open the front door, half expecting Harry to appear in a cloud of smoke. With a sigh, Will turned back to his mother, "Not here yet mum…"

Diane set Mari down before inspecting her own appearance, "That's good…" she muttered; "Maybe now I can salvage my hair…" Dudley watched his wife run her fingers through her short hair, fluffing it in places, smoothing it down in places, picking at imaginary split ends…

Finally Dudley took Diane's hands, "Stop." A small smile spread across the Dursley man's face, "You look lovely."

"Says the man who has a cousin who disappears into thin air?" Diane said with a smirk, straightening Dudley's tie.

"Says the woman who has a son who causes bad hair pieces to combust?" Her husband retorted, pecking her nose.

"MUM! DAD! Knock it off!" The couple turned to look at Will, "He's here already!"

Mari was out the door before either of her parents could stop her, "MR. HARRY'S HERE!"

"Hey! Wait for me!" Will laughed, making his way out to the front door. Diane and Dudley looked at each other for a good moment.

"Shall we?" Diane asked her husband, though it was a rhetorical question than anything.

Dudley took his wife's hand as they walked out the door, "We shall.

* * *

To be honest, the car was plain; it was a simple black car that neatly sat five. Dudley was sitting in the passenger's seat next to Harry while Diane sat between her children to minimize bickering.

"I didn't know wizards drove cars Harry, to be honest." Dudley chuckled as he watched his cousin drive.

Harry smiled, "Well actually, a lot don't. There are some wizarding families that have no idea how to use some muggle items." At this, the dark haired man laughed, "You know, I spent almost 4 hours trying to explain to my brother-in-law that an escalator wasn't an enchanted staircase."

Will leaned forward, straining against his seatbelt, "Really? That's so weird!"

Harry adjusted his rear-view mirror so he could get a better look at Will, "Well to be fair, muggles don't know much about the wizarding world or how magic works in general."

Diane raised an eyebrow, "But what about the witch trials that went on during Medieval times? Were any of those witches real?"

The Dursleys in the back seat watched in the rear-view mirror as Harry furrowed his brow, "You'll have to forgive me, I only got a D in History of Magic, but I think that most of the women and men accused of witchcraft in those times were just unfortunate muggles. Anytime a real witch or wizard would have been caught, they could have easily have just used a fire freezing spell to make sure they weren't actually hurt."

Will wrinkled his nose, "I'm not too good at history."

Harry chuckled, "Neither was I, and the professor didn't help." The older wizard shook his head as he made a turn down a more secluded road, "Boring as could be."

"Maybe I'll have better luck with a different professor!" The smaller blond smiled, hopeful.

Harry just shook his head, "No such luck, Will. Professor Binns will never stop teaching."

Dudley chuckled, "Old coot just won't die?"

"Oh no, he's already dead, he just won't stop teaching."

A thick silence hung over the car, each of the Dursleys trying to figure out if Harry was serious about his comment. Dudley realized that this was happening a lot with his cousin. When did Harry suddenly get the urge to start talking in riddles?

"Mr. Harry, you need to turn around, that road's closed." Dudley looked back at Mari, who was pointing at the road sign which Harry had just pasted.

Sure enough, Dudley and Diane were just able to catch a glimpse of the sign, enough for the sign to make it's meaning clear

_BRIDGE CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION_

Diane tapped on Harry's shoulder, "I think Mari's right, maybe we took a wrong turn…"

"Trust me, we didn't take a wrong turn." Harry said with a smile as they pulled up to the bridge.

The sound of the car idling was the only sound that anyone heard for a while. Dudley took the opportunity to look at the bridge. To say it was under construction would be an understatement. The structure they all were looking at couldn't even be considered a bridge. It was more of a ramp that led to nowhere, just stopping suddenly, leaving anyone that dared travel on it to an untimely drop.

Finally, Harry readjusted his mirror, "Alright everyone, I should warn you, this ride is going to get a little bit bumpy. Everyone's buckled, yes?" The three Dursley's in the back seat nodded. Even Dudley found himself responding to Harry, "Right-o then, We'll just be on our way." Harry moved the car forward, but stopped again. The dark haired wizard turned to look at Diane, "Diane?"

The older Dursley lady blinked, "Yes?"

"Hold onto your kids, alright?"

Before Diane or even Dudley could respond, Harry had slammed his foot onto the gas pedal, sending the car forward at breakneck speeds. As the car barreled along the bridge and closer to the sudden drop, Dudley felt his entire life flash before his eyes.  _Oh no, Harry_ was _still sore about their childhood. And now he was sending himself and his family over a cliff! Oh, why wasn't he nicer to Harry growing up? How could he have known that Harry would become a wizard and trap them in a car before sending them over a unfinished bridge? Why didn't he change sooner? Why…_

"Dudley, you can stop screaming now."

Dudley's watery blue eyes opened.

Just in time to see their car rocket off the end of the bridge, soaring several feet.

 _10 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet…40 feet? 50 feet?_   _How far could a car go before crashing into the hard earth below?_

But…the car didn't crash. At all. In fact, it didn't even move downwards. Instead, the little black car kept climbing higher and higher. Then it took a turn as Harry turned his steering wheel. The wizard was calmly still driving the airbound car. And that's when it hit Dudley.

 _The car was flying_.

"Whoa!" Will exclaimed, looking out the window. Mari giggled as they passed a flock of birds, pointing to them out her window. Diane was torn between being in awe or being scarred for her life.

It took several moments before Dudley could look at his cousin.

The wizard was obviously trying to keep from laughing, "I'm sorry Dudley, but you have to admit that the look on your face was pretty brilliant."

"Well I'm glad I could be of entertainment Harry." The blonde dabbed his forehead with his sleeve.

Harry chuckled, "Would now be too late to tell you this is a magical car?"

Will was beaming, "I thought you could only ride on brooms?"

The older wizard smiled, "Brooms are our favorite way to travel, but that doesn't mean that we can't make other things fly."

* * *

It was almost 6 in the evening by the time that Harry put the car on four wheels again, driving along a dirt road.

"You won't be taking us off anymore bridges will you Harry?" Diane asked hesitantly, still clutching onto Mari for dear life.

Harry chuckled, "Don't worry Diane, we're done flying for now. In fact, if you look up ahead, you'll see our destination."

At this, all the Dursley's looked out the window at the house that they were quickly approaching. Surprisingly, the house they saw didn't look like the tower of a castle or a mighty fortress. It looked like a normal two story house with a garden and a garage. Just like any other house that the Dursleys might find on Chestnut Avenue. It looked like a relatively normal house, although by now Dudley was expecting the house to be anything but normal.

There was a still silence as Harry parked the car. Will was watching the house, waiting for something to happen, though what he was expecting no one knew.

"Shall we head inside?"

None of the Dursleys had noticed that Harry had not only gotten out of the car, but was halfway to the house before the family had gotten out of their seats.

"Yay! We're at a wizard's house!"

Leave it to Mari to lighten the atmosphere.

* * *

"Ginny! Kids, I'm back!" Harry called into the house as he shut the door behind Dudley. The wizard looked back at his cousin's family, "Welcome to my home. Ginny should be in the kitchen cooking-"

"Cooking doesn't even begin to cover what I'm doing, Harry!" A voice ripped through the house. Harry visibly winced, an action that Dudley noted.

A sheepish grin crossed Harry's face, "I think she wants us to come to her. Come one, I'll try to give you a quick tour of this floor before we see what my wife is up to…" The wizard took off, Will and Mari close behind with Diane on their heels.

Dudley almost fell behind as his cousin led Dudley's family through the various rooms of the house, pointing out several photos that made him laugh. Dudley tried to pay attention, he really did, it was just so much to take in. The blonde's eyes drifted to a grandfather clock that stood in the hallway and a small smile drifted across his face. It was very similar to the one Dudley had in his own home. But as Dudley got a closer look, he noticed that the clock didn't tell time. Instead of having two hands, it had multiple hands, each one with a picture of what Dudley could only guess were members of Harry's family; and instead of having numbers, there were several different places surrounding the clock face…

"Neat clock isn't it?"

Dudley jumped, not aware that he was being watched. The blonde man turned to face who he suspected was Harry's older son, James.

"Erm…yes I suppose…what does it do? It obviously can't tell time…" Dudley felt like his question my sound foolish to the adolescent wizard.

The dark haired boy looked at Dudley, then the clock, then at Dudley again, "Yes, well it obviously doesn't tell time. It tells where your family is at of course." The wizard tapped the glass over the face of the clock, "See? All of us, meaning mum and dad, Al, Lily and I are all pointed at  _HOME_." Dudley saw the arms with Harry's picture, as well as the others pointing at the word 'HOME' on the clock, "Uncle Ron is still at work, while Aunt Hermione and Rose and Hugo are visiting Grandmum and Granddad Weasley."

 _Weasley…Where have I heard that name before?_  Dudley pondered for all of two seconds before looking at James' red hair again.  _Oh…_  The same Weasleys that gave him those hexed sweets.

"There you are James, Dudley! I wondered where you got to." Harry said with a smile as he joined his cousin and his son in front of the grandfather clock. "Lily and Mari are playing in Lily's room while Al took Will to the attic to show him some other books to read."

"And Diane?" Dudley asked, hoping nothing bad had become of his wife.

Harry chuckled, "She's in the kitchen helping Ginny with dinner."

"Oh, alright…" Dudley said, relieved.

"So…" Harry looked back at the clock, "What do you think?"

* * *

"This room is incredible!" Will's eyes were wide as Albus took him into the attic. The room wasn't so much of an attic as it was more of a library, filled with magical books on every topic.

Al smiled, green eyes twinkling behind his glasses, "I know. Dad let me turn the attic into a place to put all my books and everything. He even got me a few chairs to put up here when I just want to read." The smaller boy sat in one of the overstuffed chairs in the miniature library _._ Will eagerly sat with him.

"What's it like being a wizard?" Will had to ask, eager to learn.

Al chuckled. "What's it like being a muggle?"

The two stared at each other before they started laughing.

"I asked you first!"

"Well I don't know, I only just got my letter you know!" Al chuckled, sitting on his knees.

Will tilted his head to the side, "You mean you haven't been doing magic all your life?"

Al shook his head, "I haven't gotten my wand yet, Dad's taking me to Diagon Alley to get-"

"We need wands?" Will's eyes got even wider.

Al blinked at him, then laughed. "Of course we need wands, how did you expect to do magic?"

Will could feel his cheeks redden in front of the ebony haired boy, "I…I dunno…"

Seeing Will's discomfort, Al smiled softly, "If you look on your letter, there's a list of required things that you'll need for the new term at Hogwarts."

"Will I be able to get all the stuff I need? I don't know any stores that sell wands…" Will trailed off when he saw Al starting to grin again.

"Well, my family likes to shop on Diagon Alley, but muggles aren't able to get there without a wizard's help. Maybe my dad can take us, and then we can get our books and everything together."

Will grinned, "Great!"

"I'm guessing you're excited for Hogwarts?" At Will's eager nodding, Al smiled, "Me too, but I'm a little nervous about being sorted."

"What's that like? Is it hard?" Will leaned forward in his chair.

Al shrugged, "I don't know. James told me that you have to do lots of hard spells, but Uncle Ron says he's lying. I just hope I get into Gryffindor."

"Why's that?" Will asked, trying to remember which house that was.

Al shrugged again, looking at his hands, "Everyone in my family has been in Gryffindor, I would hate to be the weird one..."

"I already am the weird one."

Al looked up at Will. The two looked at each other for a long time. Finally, Al started to smile.

"I guess you are."

"BOYS! DINNER'S READY!" Not one but two voices rang out through house, reaching the boys all the way up in the attic.

"I guess our moms get along nice enough." Will joked.

Al laughed, "And here mom thought she'd never meet a muggle she liked."

* * *

Dudley looked around at the table. He could have sworn that when he first saw it, the table had been only big enough to fit 5 comfortably. But now there were 9 of them seated around the long table, and there was still plenty of room for the massive amounts of food that Ginny had made. Although he was puzzled, Dudley was glad that Diane was chatting amiably with Ginny, Harry's wife. James and Harry were debating heatedly over something Dudley couldn't even begin to understand, although he thought her heard the word 'Quidditch' thrown around, whatever that meant.

The sounds of feet making their way down the stairs could be heard as Will and Albus finally came into view. Dudley turned to look at them.

And almost forgot to breathe.

Albus looked more like his father in real life than he had in the picture. They had the same unruly hair that stuck out at funny angles everywhere, the same scrawny arms and legs, the same wiry build, the same tiny glasses. They even had the same bright green eyes that lit up a room wherever he was.

And Will…everyone always said that Will looked like Dudley, although Dudley knew he was much larger than Will at his age. But the same basic features were there, such as Dudley's blonde hair and blue eyes were also on will. They both also had small dimples on their cheeks when they smiled just right…

That's how Al and Will looked. Just right. There was no imbalance of power between them. One wasn't spoiled while the other was ignored. One wasn't skin and bones in hand me down cloths 4 sizes too big while the other was almost too big for normal cloths that received everything he wanted and still wasn't happy.

No, there was none of that.

They were just right.

"Hey dad, you can stop staring at me."

Dudley blinked. He hadn't realized he had been staring at his son until he was seated across from him. Will was sitting next to Al, who was still eagerly telling Will all he knew.

"Alright boys, that's enough talking for now." Harry chuckled as Ginny served everyone, "Why don't you thank your mum for the meal Albus? She made your favorites."

The black haired boy blushed, "Thanks mum…"

Ginny grinned, kissing her son on his cheek, "You're very welcome Al." Both Ginny and Diane shared a grin, which made Dudley chuckle quietly.

James rolled his eyes, "Can we eat already?"

Harry laughed, "Oh alright James, You ca-" But Harry was interrupted by the sound of a car backfiring.

_Wait...that's the same noise Harry made when he-_

"GOOD EVENING POTTER FAMILY!" A loud and boisterous boomed as it made its way to the dining room.

Dudley and Diane couldn't help but stare.

The man that had interrupted their dinner looked like everything that would have given Vernon Dursley a heart attack. For one, he wore pants far too tight for him, not that it mattered, they were so torn up it was hard to tell if he was trying to make a fashion statement or if he was a vagabound. Petunia Dursley would have tried to tear the poor excuse for pants right off the man and burned them, if she had a chance. This man also wore brightly colored robes. Dudley had expected wizards to wear robes or something of the sort, but nothing as bright as what he saw. He didn't even know purple could get so bright, it was like seeing a light show. And of course the eyebrow piercing over his left eye didn't help the man's unsettling appearance. But to top it all off, the newly arrived wizard had bright turquoise hair.

Dudley opened his mouth to ask what was going on when the three Potter children beat him to the punch.

"TEDDY!"


	8. What Dudley Needed to Hear

The Dursleys watched as James got up from his seat, eager to greet the turquoise haired wizard,  _Teddy_.

"Teddy! I didn't know you were coming over tonight!" The oldest Potter boy said joyfully, hugging the young man quickly.

Teddy laughed, "You know, I didn't know I was coming myself for a while. I just came from visiting Victoire and just thought I'd…well who do we have here?" The flamboyant wizard had finally realized that he wasn't the only guest in the Potter house as he took a step towards the table. This loss of focus caused him to stumble and almost lose his balance as he looked from Dudley to Diane to Will to Mari. "Uncle Harry, why didn't you tell me you were having company? You made me look like an idiot!"

Harry laughed, "You did that all on your own Teddy. But if you must know, this is my cousin Dudley" Dudley nodded at the brightly colored wizard, "His wife Diane," Diane gave a small wave, not sure if she liked this man's presence or not, "And their children, Will and Mari." Both Dursley children weren't as affected by Teddy's appearance as their parents had been, Will smiling at the older boy while Mari waved happily, giggling.

"Hiya!" The youngest Dursley said happily, swinging her legs in her seat.

Harry smiled, "Dudley, this is my godson Ted Lupin."

"But really, call me Teddy," The colorful wizard clapped his hands on Harry's shoulders, "the only people that call me Ted are my Grams and Uncle Harry when he's upset with me." Laughing, Teddy reached over his godfather's shoulder to grab a roll from the bread basket. Unfortunately for Teddy, his hand was slapped away by none other than Ginny.

"Teddy Lupin, if you are going to each my food, than you are going to sit at my table." The redhaired woman tried her best to sound stern to the 19 year old in front of her guests.

"Aw, come on Aunty Gin, you know I'd never say 'no' to a meal with the Potters." The Purple robed wizard retrieved his wand out of the folds of his cloak.

Dudley almost winced. Even though he was gradually getting used to the magical world, this was the first time he had seen a wand since…

 _Since that night…_  How odd, it had been a wand that had saved his life, and yet he was still half expecting the vibrant wizard to put a curse on him.

But no, Teddy instead simple waved his wand and, after muttering something under his breath, made a chair appear out of thin air. As he sat down, Teddy almost immediately had a spot made for him on the table, regardless of how many people there were seated.

Teddy was still grinning as he settled himself into his seat, "So," the wizard started, looking at Dudley, "Are you a long lost cousin or have you and your lovely family been locked in a tower for all these years?"

" _TEDDY!"_

"What? I'm just asking a question Aunty Gin. It's not every day I get to meet a family member I didn't know existed."

Dudley wasn't sure what to say. Did he say that Harry and him had been feuding since they were children? Did he tell everyone that they hadn't spoken in almost 20 years?

Luckily, Harry noticed Dudley's discomfort, "Well you see Teddy, Dudley is a muggle."

Harry's godson blinked, "You don't say? Wild…"

 _That's ironic…_ Dudley thought,  _He thinks_ I'm  _wild?_

"Yes, and muggles don't use owl post or floo like we do, so it's been hard to keep in contact." Harry chuckled at the look on Teddy's face.

Diane looked at Dudley, trying to discreetly mouth, " _Floo?"_

To Dudley's surprise, it was Will that answered his mother, "It's a way of communicating through fireplaces mum."

Out of the corner of his eye, Dudley could have sworn that he saw Harry smile softly at Will.

" _Anyways,_ " Teddy continued, ignoring the tender moment between Will and Harry, "Why the sudden family reunion?"

Harry rolled his eyes at his godson, "Well you see Teddy, Will here just got his letter to Hogwarts, so now just seemed like a good time to get together." Will beamed at the mention of Hogwarts, and so did Teddy.

"Really now?" Teddy raises his pieced eyebrow, "So you and Al will be starting together?"

Will nodded eagerly, "Yes sir!" Beside him, Al suppressed a snicker.

Teddy grimaced, "Please, just call me Teddy, I beg of you." At this, Will blushed while James and Al began to laugh. After taking a sip of pumpkin juice, the older wizard continued, "I remember my years at Hogwarts. Best years of my life I must say: the food, the pranks, the people, the classes, the pranks-"

Lily giggled from her end of the table, "You said pranks already!"

The turquoise haired wizard laughed, "Well I  _really_  liked the pranks."

Ginny rolled her eyes, looking at Diane, "He takes after my brother too much."

Will leaned forward in his seat over his plate, "What house were you in?"

The statement Will had made to Teddy made no sense in Dudley's mind.  _  
_

"Why, I was in Ravenclaw!" Teddy puffed out his chest in pride.

Will looked from Teddy to Al, "Is that a good thing?"

Harry laughed, "There are no good or bad houses-"

"Except for Slytherin!"

"That's enough James." The dark haired wizard rolled his eyes, "As I was saying, there aren't good or bad houses, just houses that have different qualities that they value."

Teddy interrupted his godfather, "Like Ravenclaw for example! Ravenclaws are known to be very intelligent and clever."

The entire Dursley family (excluding Mari, who had long since lost interest in what the grownups were saying and was giggling with Lily about some joke that no one had heard) stared at Teddy. This bright haired, loudmouthed, clumsy wizard was considered clever?

"Hard to believe I know." Harry remarked in response to the look of disbelief on his cousin's face, "If I hadn't been there myself, I wouldn't have believed it. But Teddy can be brilliant when he's not acting like a loon."

"Aww, I love you too Uncle Harry!" Teddy cooed back to his godfather.

Will laughed, "What are the other houses? What do they value?"

Dudley and Diane shared another look. Will's values would be determined based on his house? What if Will didn't have those values?

Teddy buttered a roll, "Well let's see: right now you're surrounded by Gryffindors," Harry and Ginny chuckled while James gave a thumbs up to Will, "And everyone at Hogwarts knows that Gryffindors value recklessness and the hero complex-"

"Hey hey hey! Be nice Teddy!" Harry laughed at the Dursleys faces, "We Gryffindors actually value courage and chivalry. It's just a running joke at Hogwarts to exaggerate the qualities of each house. Like Ravenclaws, everyone will joke about them being bookworms and know-it-alls."

"Right, because I'm a bookworm." Teddy laughed.

Ginny rolled her eyes, " _Anyways_ , there's also Hufflepuff, they value hard work and acceptance."

Will nodded, "Those all sound like good qualities." Dudley couldn't help but agree. There was nothing wrong with having chivalry or being accepting or being clever… "What's the last house?"

The Potter family and Teddy looked at Harry who, after seeing all eyes on him, sighed, "The last house is Slytherin. The qualities it values aren't necessarily bad, despite what James tells you. Slytherin house values ambition and cunning."

Will pondered this for a moment, "I guess I'll have to wait until I'm sorted to figure things out!"

At this, Harry smiled.

* * *

After dinner, both families and Teddy moved out to the back yard for coffee. Dudley held Diane's hand as they sat on the small patio.

"How are you feeling?" He asked after seeing his wife's dumbstruck face.

Diane sighed, looking at her husband, "I guess I'm just overwhelmed. To think this entire world was thriving without our knowledge and now it seems that Will's diving head first into it."

"Well to be fair, humans still don't understand everything that goes on in the ocean, and yet people dive head first into it every day." Dudley almost groaned at how lame his analogy sounded.

And Diane didn't appreciate the image either, "Please do not tell me you just compared our son to a starfish."

"Of course not…he'd definitely be a dolphin."

The two looked at each other before chuckling, their unease ebbing away.

"What are those?" Both Dudley and Diane turned their attention to Mari. The little girl was pointing to three hoops that had been set up on poles that towered above the house. It was amazing that Dudley hadn't seen it before.

Beside Mari, Lily giggled, "Those are Quidditch hoops, silly."

"What in the world is Quidditch?" Dudley wondered. It wasn't until the entire Potter family stared at him that Dudley realized that he had said this statement out loud.

But what further surprised him was when Will responded, "Quidditch is a wizarding sport dad! It's played on brooms!"

"Now I  _know_  you all are kidding with me," Diane said as she shook her head, "A game played on brooms?"

Harry chuckled, "It does sound a little odd I know. But it really is a fun game."

Will stared at the hoops, "Tell me how to play! I want to fly on a broomstick! You said I could!"

 _When had Harry said that?_  Dudley wondered, but Harry smiled.

"I did say that didn't I? Well maybe if one of my good sons could go get our brooms and our Quidditch set, we could start a game." Harry sent a knowing look to James and Albus, and soon the two boys, accompanied by Teddy, raced off to the garage.

Dudley couldn't help himself, "How does Quidditch work?"

Harry smiled at his cousin's enthusiasm in his favorite sport, "Well, Quidditch is played with 14 players, 7 on each team, and it has 4 balls."

"That sounds confusing." Diane muttered, and Dudley nodded in agreement.

Harry chucked as the boys made their way back, James carrying a chest and Al and Teddy carrying brooms, "Well once you know which players focus on which balls, it makes things easier."

"Here you go dad!" James grinned, setting the chest on the table. Harry smiled to his son before opening the chest and pulling out a large red ball.

"This is whats called a Quaffle-"

Ginny rolled her eyes before snatching the ball from her husband, "Give that here Harry, and let a Chaser do the talking. The Quaffle is handled by three players called Chasers," The redhead smirked, "That's what I usually played on the school team. The Chasers try to get the Quaffle through those hoops over there." Ginny finished as she pointed over towards the hoops.

Teddy snickered, "Not like you've played in years Aunty Gin."

The former Weasley woman put her hand on her hip, "Oh? I can still play a mean game of Quidditch Teddy."

"Come off it, Aunty Gin, you're rusty. Three Galleons says you can't get the Quaffle through the goal."

Ginny raised her eyebrow, then turned to face the hoops. Tossing the ball in her hands a few times, the former Gryffindor Chaser narrowed her eyes on the nearest goalpost. Finally, the redhead drew back her arm and let the Quaffle fly.

The entire company watched as the red ball arced gracefully through the hoop.

Ginny smirked. "You owe me three Galleons, Teddy. Don't ever tell me I'm rusty. Now go get the Quaffle."

Teddy grumbled, but did as his aunt asked. Harry grinned, "That's my wife for you. But moving on, also on each team there's a Keeper, who tries to stop the Chasers from scoring-"

Will brightened, "Oh! Like in football!"

"Exactly like football…but on broomsticks." Harry laughed, "There are also two players on each team called Beaters."

James grinned, "That's me, I play for the Gryffindor team at Hogwarts!" As if to show proof, James picked up his Beater bat, which only confused the Dursleys.

Harry smiled, "The Beaters handle two other balls called Bludgers. I'm not going to let the Bludgers out of the box because I don't want anyone getting hurt-"

"Are they dangerous?" Diane's grip on Dudley's hand had tightened, afraid of what sport her son could be playing.

Harry gave a sheepish smile, "Well what a Bludger does is fly around the pitch trying to knock players off their brooms. It's the Beaters job to keep the Bludgers away from the players."

James gave the Dursleys a reassuring grin, "Don't worry, no one's been seriously hurt by a Bludger at Hogwarts since dad broke his arm when he was 12."

"That was a tampered Bludger James, it doesn't count."

Dudley stared at his cousin. Harry played a sport?

Harry continued with his speech, "And finally, there is the Seeker."

Ginny nudged her husband shoulder, "That'd be Harry, finest Seeker Hogwarts had ever seen."

"Erm, well anyways, the Seeker tries to find this" Harry reached into the chest and retrieved a small golden ball. It couldn't have been any bigger than a walnut, with small delicate wings that tried to flutter away from Harry's hand. "Each Seeker tries to find this before the other team's Seeker. Once the Snitch," Harry gestured to the ball, "is caught, the game is over."

Will was listening with rapt attention, "Can we play now?"

Dudley looked at his son. There had been a time when he had thought Will had been excited to learn to box, but now…Will never seemed to want to stop learning about everything in Harry's world…Will's world.

Harry smiled, "Well I can't let the Bludgers or the Snitch out, but you kids can play with the Quaffle and practice your aim. Hey Teddy!" The black haired wizard yelled to his godson, who was just then approaching with the Quaffle, "Get a game going, will you?"

* * *

If someone had told Dudley last week that he'd be watching his son learn to fly on a broomstick while his wife discussed recipes with a witch and his daughter would be playing with enchanted dolls, he would have told them to have their head examined.

But here he sat, on the patio of the Potter house, watching as James, Al and Teddy instructed Will on how to use a broomstick to fly.

"He's a good kid." Dudley turned to look at Harry, who was smiling at him, "Will's a sweet boy."

Dudley nodded, "I know, I like to tell people he takes after his mother."

Harry gestured to Mari, who was playing dolls with Lily, "Then who does Mari take after?"

"Her mother. Diane always did have a girly side, even if she never wanted to show it."

The wizard chuckled, "You know, when I first read your letter, I had to double check to make sure I had read it correctly. For some reason, I had never imagined you with children."

"Just like I had never imagined you playing a sport?"

"Touché."

Dudley sighed, watching his son, "To be honest, I never thought I'd have kids either. Or a wife."

"What changed?" Harry leaned on the patio railing.

It took Dudley almost an entire minute before responding, "That night…when we were 15."

"The Dementors?"

Dudley nodded slowly, "Whatever they're called…they made me see what I really was: a fat, spoiled, horrible excuse for a human being."

"Dudley…"

"Don't even try to say that wasn't true Harry, because it was. I was spoiled by my parents into thinking that all that mattered in the world was me. That I deserved everything I wanted, and if anyone tried to get in my way, all I had to do was beat them until they gave me what I wanted. And I was fat Harry, you didn't even recognize me remember?"

"I never said that you weren't those things." Harry tried to smile, but the cousin's knew that they were reliving unhappy memories. "So you were afraid of being your parents pet?"

"Well that…that and you Harry."

The green eyed man was surprised to say the least, "Me? What did I do?"

"Harry, I treated you horribly growing up. I beat you, I teased you, I chased you up trees. For crying out loud Harry, I made fun of the fact your mother was dead not even 20 minutes before you saved my life. You were everything I wasn't: selfless, brave, hardworking…so once I recovered from that night, I knew I needed to change. The first step was letting you know I didn't hate you…"

"The last time we saw each other…"

Dudley gulped, "Yeah…when I got to University, I joined the cross country team. It was strange to say the least."

"Working out?" Dudley looked at Harry, who looked down, "I'm sorry, that was a bad joke."

"It's alright, but it was strange because I was the one being teased for a change. And it made me think of you, and all those years I tormented you. It made me run faster and work harder…before I knew it, I could see my belt buckle…then I met Diane…then Will and Mari came along…and life's just been so good to me since…"

"I'm glad," Harry smiled, "After you fled from the house, I spent the entire year trying to defeat the man who killed my parents."

Dudley stared at his cousin, "And…did you?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah…but don't tell Diane or your kids about how I killed a man at the age of 17."

Dudley didn't know how to respond to Harry's request.

"War makes people do things they didn't think they could Dudley."

"War?"

Harry nodded again, "I'm still surprised at how secretive the wizarding world can be: we were able to have a war and no one in the muggle world, except those related to a witch or wizard, knew about it."

Dudley pondered that for a moment. Finally, the blonde looked at his cousin. "Harry, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, I see no reason why not." Harry smiled softly.

"Why did you save me? When we were 15." Dudley stared at his cousin. He  _had_  to know…

"Because it was the right thing to do." Harry made it sound so simple, so easy.

Dudley shook his head, "But I was absolutely wretched to you! I mocked you for having nightmares, bullied you from the time we could walk, made your childhood torture, I-"

Harry stared out at the Quidditch field, "Dudley, I never said it was the easy thing to do. I said it was the right thing."

"But-"

"Dudley, if doing the right thing were easy, everyone would do it." Harry smiled softly, "Anyone can do what is easy, but a man's character comes to him when he starts doing what is right, especially when it's hard…like losing 300 pounds of bullying, spoiled selfishness and pride."

Dudley fell quiet, just thinking back on Harry's words. Just when Dudley thought he had done a lot of growing up in the past 20 years, Harry shows him that he still has a lot of growing to do…but there was a lot of truth in his cousin's words.

Anyone could do what was easy…such as walking out on his grandson because it would be too hard to accept him for what he was.

But as Dudley watched Will mount his first broom, he knew that he was coming to a crossroads. He could do what was easy and ignore or reject Will for his gift…or he could learn to go against everything he had been taught and love his son for the boy he held for the first time 11 years ago, the boy who took his first steps walking into his father's arms. The boy who came home from school excited to show his parents the picture he drew just for them…the boy he had come to love so much…

Will's feet left the ground as his broom rose higher and higher in the air.

"He's flying…" Dudley said in amazement.

Harry just smiled.


	9. The Right Thing

"Did you see me dad? I was flying! On a broom!"

"Yes Will, I saw you."

"I even made a goal!"

Dudley chuckled, unlocking their front door as he watched his son. Will's suit was rumpled and neatly combed hair was now a tangled mess. His eyes were still wide with the excitement of that night at the Potters.

Mari, also, was still buzzing from the nights activities. "Mom! Mom! Lily and I got to play with dolls and-and-and and her dolls move! And her dollhouse works! Little lights turn on and her dolls have little wands and brooms and they fly around they do spells! And-and-and her picture books move and the story talks to you and the pages turn themselves and when the story's over, the book puts itself on the shelf! And her toys move and they but themselves away! She never has to clean her room! And-and-and-"

Diane looked over at Dudley, trying to keep from rolling her eyes, "I'm going to put Mari to bed…see you upstairs." Diane whispered, careful not to interrupt her daughter's ranting as she made her way up the stairs.

Mari's rambling could still be heard by the two Dursley men downstairs. Dudley chuckled. "She sure is excited to be friend with Lily."

Will nodded, setting his borrowed book on the kitchen counter. "She sure is dad."

Dudley looked over at his son, "Another book Will? Wow, why couldn't you have been this excited to read about history?"

"Because history's boring, dad." Will rolled his eyes at his father paging through the leather bound book.

"Well you know Will," Dudley chuckled, getting a glass from the kitchen cupboard, "You'll have to take a History of Magic class, remember?"

The smaller blonde sat at the kitchen counter, perched on a stool, "Yeah, but it's  _magical_  history dad. James says they cover things like goblin rebellions and the dates that certain spells were discovered, even things like WWI and WWII."

Dudley paused, his brow furrowed, "Why would wizards learn about the World Wars?"

But Will shook his head, "Not the World Wars. In the Magical world, WWI and WWII were what they call the Wizarding Wars and get this, both wars were started by the same wizard! Al says they were both ended by the same wizard too, but he didn't say who."

The older blonde turned on the water faucet, "So I'm guessing these wars were important to the magical world?"

"Yeah, Al says that there are a lot of memorials and plaques at Hogwarts to honor those who died in the second war. Apparently Al lost an uncle to the war and Teddy lost both of his parents when he was only a month old." Will paused, "Al didn't want to talk a whole lot about it…"

"His mother lost a brother, I'm sure it's hard for them to talk about." Dudley watched his son look over the book.

Will nodded, "Yeah, plus it's pretty recent. I mean, it isn't recent to me, but historically it's pretty recent. It hasn't even been 20 years since the last Wizarding War…"

Dudley stopped when Will said it had been 20 years since the last war had ended.

It was 20 years ago that he had been rushed from his house because he was in danger.

Because Harry was in danger.

Because Harry was in the middle of a war.

The second Wizarding War.

"Dad?" Dudley blinked, bringing his focus back to his son.

"I'm sorry Will, I guess I was just lost in thought…I think Harry fought in the last Wizarding War."

Will raised an eyebrow, "That doesn't sound right, dad. That would have made him-"

"17."

"…Ok, 17 when the war ended. That would have made him a child soldier."

_Child soldier…that's what he was…_

Dudley set his glass on the counter, having not drunk from it, his mind still swimming with the information his son continued to tell him.

A small beep interrupted both Will from his rant on history and Dudley from his thoughts. Both blondes looked at the handheld phone across the kitchen. A flashing red light on the answering machine told them that there was a message waiting for them.

"Will, could you press the button please?" Dudley asked before finally taking a sip of his water. Will nodded and walked over to the machine, pressing the red button before going back to his seat.

" _Received May 26 at 5:25 p.m."_  That would have been barely an hour after they had left for the Potter's.

" _Hey Dudley…it's mum"_  Dudley looked at the machine. That's right…his mom did promise to call. In all the excitement, Dudley had completely forgotten.

" _You must have just left for dinner…I'll try to keep this short Dudley…I know that Will is a great boy, and that he's always been special. Even when he was an infant and I would watch him, he could light up a room._ "

There was a small chuckle on the recording, " _I would be holding him and he would start to giggle and then…all the lights would turn on in the house…Harry used to do that._ "

Dudley was stunned to say the least. He didn't think he ever heard his mother talk about Harry's magic in a positive light before,  _"I guess I should have told you about Will, but…I didn't know how you would take it. Your father…your father hated Harry for his magic and…and I didn't want you to hate Will…"_

Dudley turned and looked at his son, who was staring at the machine with wide eyes,  _"And I know I'm not completely innocent when it came to Harry…I was so blinded my jealousy towards my sister that I took it out on Harry…"_

Dudley heard a very distinct sniffle on the message, his mother must have been in tears at this point,  _"Please Dudley, I lost my sister and my own jealously pushed me so far as to lose my only nephew…I don't want to lose Will…he's a good boy, just like Harry was…"_

The message had barely finished before Dudley had grabbed the phone, furiously punching in numbers on the keypad.

"Dad? Is Grandma going to be alright?"

Father and son shared a look, and Will knew that Dudley didn't have an answer for him.

Dudley held the phone to his ear, listening as the other end began to ring. He knew it was late, but even if he got the message machine, he could at least tell his mother-

" _Hello?"_  Dudley was almost taken aback. His mother almost never answered the phone this late…had she been crying?

"Mum?" Dudley bit his lip, "It's me…Dudley."

A sniff was heard on the other line,  _"Oh Dudley, I'm surprised you called this late…"_

"I just got your message. I'm sorry I missed you mum, we had just left for dinner…at the Potter's."

" _You had dinner with Harry? I didn't know you two were speaking."_

Dudley cleared his throat, "Well he actually contacted us after Will got his letter and invited us to dinner at his house…He has a son Will's age."

" _Harry has a child?"_

"Three actually: 13, 11, and 9. They're all wonderful…you would have loved it there mom."

Another sniff, this one longer, " _No doubt I would…Lily once invited me over to her house once…I refused because your father refused to meet them… she was dead a week later…"_ After this, Dudley heard a strangled sob from his mother's end of the line.

"Mum? Mum, are you alright?" Dudley asked, ignoring the imploring look on Will's face.

" _I-I'll be alright Dudley…"_  Those were his mother's words, but Dudley knew something was wrong.

Before he could take this conversation any longer, there was one nagging issue in the back of Dudley's mind, "How's dad doing with Will? Has he come around yet?"

This was apparently the worst thing he could have said, as on the other end of the line, Petunia Dursley fell apart, sobbing loudly into the phone,  _"He's gone Dudley! He left!"_

A small gasp reached Dudley's ears as he looked at Will. Apparently the young wizard had heard everything his grandmother was saying through the speaker on the phone.

"Mum, what do you mean he left?"

" _He left. He left me, he left you and Diane and Will and Mari…I don't know what to do, Dudley."_

"Did he say why he left?" Dudley was trying to breath evenly, to keep calm and above all, not frighten Will.

Petunita Dursley sniffled again, trying to stop her tears,  _"He said it was my fault…that it was my family that kept producing…magical people. I tried to tell him it had nothing to do with me…but…Oh Dudley, what do I do?"_

Dudley grit his teeth, not saying anything for the longest time. How dare his own father abandon him like that, abandon his own wife? Over what? A stupid letter? The fact that Will would be able to do things that Vernon Dursley could never even hope of achieveing? And to top it all off, he blamed his own wife for something she had no control over…it made Dudley's blood boil.

" _Dudley?"_

"Mum, dad's made his choice to leave. Only he can make the choice to come back." Dudley finally said.

" _But-"_

"No buts mum. I know you love dad, but he made his choice to leave you and us as a family, after all the years of marriage and all those years we spent together as a family. I won't go chasing after him, and neither should you mum."

" _But Dudley, you have to understand. He's just overwhelmed by everything. His whole world has been overturned."_

Dudley cut his mother off, "The same goes for Diane, and yet Diane managed to not only accept her son, but spend the past few hours swapping recipies with a witch. Dad isn't thinking about Will or you, he's being selfish. And if he wants to be selfish, he can be selfish all he wants. Alone."

" _Dudley, this isn't easy for him."_

"Mum, if doing the right thing was easy, everyone would be doing it." Dudley couldn't remember a time when he had admonished his father like he was doing right that instant, "The way I see it mum, dad has two choices. He can either let go of his hatred and be a part of this family, or he can be selfish by himself."

Petunia Dursley was quiet for the longest time, before whispering, " _I don't want to be alone…"_

Dudley relaxed at the sound of his mother's quiet voice, "I'm going to pick you up tomorrow mum. You're moving in with us."

" _Oh Dudley, I couldn't. You already have so much to worry about with Will…"_

"What are you talking about mum? I don't worry about Will, the entire family is enjoying every minute of this process." Dudley looked at Will, resting a hand on his son's shoulder, "We'd like you to be a part of it mum…even though you weren't a part of Harry's life, you can still be a big part of Will's."

A pause hung in the air.

"… _Alright."_

"Great. I'll pick you up around 5 tomorrow, after I get off work."

" _I'll see you then."_

"Good night mum."

" _Good night Dudley."_

Finally hanging up the phone, Dudley let out a slow breath. He didn't imagine doing the right thing could be so exhausting.

Dudley looked down at Will. The small wizard hugged his dad around his middle, "I'm proud of you dad."

Slowly, Dudley wrapped his arms around his son.  _The way a father's supposed to treat his son_  Dudley couldn't help but think.


	10. Here We Go Again

True to his word, the next day Dudley picked up his mother from number 4, Privet Drive. To say it was a somber event would have been an understatement. It was obvious that Petunia Dursley hadn't slept at all that night, her eyes red and puffed up from tears. Dudley had barely gotten out of the car before his mother rushed to embrace him, clinging to her son for all she was worth.

It was heartbreaking to say the least, seeing his mother so upset, but Dudley tried his best to stay strong for her. Dudley hugged her reassuringly before loading her things into his car. Petunia sat in the passenger's seat quietly, looking out the window at her house.

"Mum?" Dudley finally asked once he was back in the car. "Are you going to be alright?" He couldn't bear to see his mother so upset. Even though he was still upset at his father for walking out on their family and hated him for everything his father had done, Dudley knew that his mother was still torn up about Vernon leaving. He might have been a bastard, but he was still Petunia's husband, and she loved him at one point. Dudley had no right to judge if she still loved Vernon, but regardless, the separation had taken its toll on her.

Petunia said nothing for almost 10 minutes as Dudley drove out of Surrey. For a while, Dudley thought is mother had just ignored his question and had opted for silence. But then, after a deep sigh, Petunia Dursley finally spoke.

"I'll be just fine."

The tone Petunia said her words sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than her son. But as mother looked at her son, both knew that indeed, she would be just fine.

* * *

At first, Petunia's move into Dudley's house was tense. Both Dudley and Will had heard what had happened with Vernon over the phone, and being the good husband that he was, Dudley told Diane why his mother was moving in so suddenly. The news that Vernon Dursley had walked out on his wife of so many years was shocking to say the least. Diane barely knew what to say to Petunia when she arrived, not sure if anything she said could cause the Dursley matriarch to remember her faithless husband. Will was torn between thinking that it was his fault for Vernon leaving and loathing his grandfather for being so hateful.

The only one who managed to bring joy back into the situation was Mari. Mari didn't know what Vernon had done to his wife and son, she only knew that her grandmother was visiting which meant that she would get lots of sweets and hugs. Mari wasn't aware of the fact that not all people liked wizards, all she knew was that grams was living with them so she could make her famous chocolate chip pancakes every morning that summer. Mari didn't care that her grandfather was nowhere to be found, all she cared about was the fact that her grandmother _was_  there.

It only took about a week for Mari's infectious spirit to spread to the rest of the family.

In fact, then entire month of June was spent enjoying Petunia's company. On days that Diane worked, Petunia would wake up early to make breakfast for her daughter-in-law, and then again for the rest of the family when they woke up. Dudley couldn't help but be proud of how much had changed since his father had gone. He could still remember when his mother had been so horrible to Harry because of his magic. Now Petunia was able to sit through any of Will's long winded ramblings about what he read about Hogwarts or what he heard from Al.

Of course, when Dudley told his mother about Harry's children and their names, Petunia had gotten a bit more than just teary.

" _Lily?"_ She had asked,  _"He named his little girl Lily?"_

Dudley had nodded and said that Harry had in fact named his daughter Lily.

" _What color is her hair?"_

This question had sounded odd to Dudley, but he decided to humor his mother and tell her that Lily's hair was red like her mothers. He hadn't expected his mother to burst into tears at this response. It was then that Dudley discovered that his Aunt Lily had red hair, and after reassuring his mother that the younger Lily's eyes weren't green like Harry's, but rather brown like Ginny's, Dudley began to tell her about their time at the Potter's house. Besides a slight wrinkle in her nose at the description of Teddy, Petunia seemed rather at ease with the magical world.

" _This was my sister's world, and she loved it until her dying day,"_  Petunia had explained when Dudley asked her about her sudden acceptance, " _And it was, and still is, Harry's world. And now…now that world has chosen Will…and I've never seen Will so happy about anything in his life…how could I ever try and keep him from it?"_

The month of June had gone by rather quickly, and the Dursleys had already gone into a new routine that adjusted to the magical presence that Will had welcomed into the house. It seemed like every day that Archimedes would land on their kitchen counter with a letter from Al to Will (after the first few times, Diane learned it was best not to have anything on that counter during those times). And every time a letter arrived, Will's face would brighten as he would eagerly snatch the letter and race to his room, to read his letter and write a response in peace. There were even a few times when Mari would have her own letter to Lily that she would send with Will's letter when Archimedes left their house.

Yes, to them, it was a very normal life.

* * *

It was near the end of July, and life was as normal as any family with a young wizard could be. Diane still worked, Dudley still coached boxing during the summer while Will and Mari enjoyed time at home with their grandmother. To an outsider, it might have looked like just about any other family during the summer break. It was only when Will started talking about Hogwarts or whatever he read about in the books that Al had lent him that anyone could notice that something was out of the ordinary.

Such as the empty fireplace roaring to life in the end of July.

Or the fire being bright green instead of a warm orange red.

Or there being a disembodied head in said fire.

To anyone else, it was an occurrence saved for a cheap horror film. To the Dursley's, it was just Harry checking in on them. Of course, Petunia and Dudley still flinched whenever the fire flared up the way it did…Some habits die harder than others….

" _Good morning, Dursleys."_  Harry greeted the family one morning, oddly chipper. Diane had already left for her shift at the hospital, so it was Dudley and Petunia sitting with the children when Harry made his call.

"Harry!" Will exclaimed as he jumped from his seat, rushing to sit in front of the fireplace.

"Mr. Harry!" Mari giggled happily, sitting next to her brother. Dudley couldn't help but chuckled. His children were acting so eager to see the fireplace; one would have thought that it had been St. Nicholas that was calling, not his cousin.

" _Good morning Dudley_. _I noticed you didn't flinch as much today."_  Harry couldn't help but tease his cousin about Dudley's first impression of Floo, when the Weasley boys had blasted their way from the Dursley's fireplace.

Dudley chucked, knowing his cousin's teasing was all in good humor, "One day I'll get used to it."

" _You got used to being the father of a wizard pretty quickly."_ Harry pointed out, making Will and Mari laugh. Dudley nodded, knowing his cousin was right.

"True." The older Dursley man nodded, "So what brings you to call us so early, Harry?"

"Yeah, is something cool happening?" Will asked, almost leaning into the fire.

"Is there going to be a party? Or maybe we get to fly again! Can we go in the car again, I promise not to scream this time, unless it's really scary or if there's a spider, I don't like spiders, they're icky. I always make daddy get the spiders when they're in the shower-"

"Mari," Dudley chuckled, "let Harry talk, alright pumpkin?" He sent Harry an apologetic look.

Harry only chuckled,  _"Lily likes to talk like that when she gets excited too. But actually, Al just reminded me that we needed to go school shopping. I almost left with him when Al reminded me that Will needed to go shopping also. So Al wanted to know if Will wanted to join us as we go to Diagon Alley tomorrow at 10. You're welcome to come with us as well, Dudley."_

Dudley paused. He hadn't even thought about how he was going to get Will's things for Hogwarts. Will had shown him the list of things he needed once, but for the life of him, Dudley had no idea where he could get a cauldron or a wand…

Will, on the other hand, almost leapt through the fire right at that moment. "REALLY? Diagon Alley?"

"I want to go too!" Mari jumped up and down, "I want to go shopping!"

" _Well Mari, we were just going to have us boys go…"_ Harry started, but after seeing Mari's dejected face, quickly added,  _"You know…Lily has been asking for quite some time to have a play date, would you like to come over to our house and play while we go shopping?"_

The disappointment in Mari's face quickly melted, "Yay! Get to play!" The young girl ran off quickly to try and pick out which toys she would bring.

"What's all the commotion?" Petunia said as she made her way into the family room with a fresh batch of cookies in hand. Then she saw the green fireplace, and suddenly Petunia had lost all ability to speak.

It wasn't the first time Harry and Petunia had seen each other over the Floo, they just couldn't seem to find the right words to say to them through their fireplaces. For the most part, they simply stayed to formalities and kept their answers short.

" _Aunt Petunia…"_

"Harry…" Petunia replied to Harry's greeting, sitting next to Dudley, "Now what's this I hear about shopping?"

Dudley tried to explain, "Will needs to go shopping for his school things, and Harry was asking if he wanted to join him and his son Al at…at…"

"Diagon Alley." Both Dudley and Harry stared at Petunia when she finished Dudley's sentence for him. "…Lily had to go there too…"

" _Oh…so you know it then?"_

Petunia shook her head, "I refused to go with them when she went to get her things, I've never seen it."

A pregnant pause filled the air.

"… _Would you like to join us, Aunt Petunia?"_  Harry finally asked. Dudley looked from his cousin to his mother, waiting to see if his mother would actually go so far as to venture into the wizarding world.

Again, the room was silent. Even Will knew better than to say something, just waiting for his aunt to answer.

"…I would…"

* * *

It was safe to say that Petunia Dursley was a wreck the next morning, at least in Dudley's mind she was. On the outside, his mother looked just as composed as usual, but Dudley knew the tell tale signs that she was worried or stressed. The most notable being the way she would purse her lips. Dudley never wanted to say anything to his mother, but he always thought she looked like a horse whenever she did this.

And by now, Dudley was also very nervous. He had expected Harry to come with the car again and drive them to wherever Diagon Alley was. So when the same black car drove up and it had been Ginny, not Harry, driving, and it had been Mari she was picking up, Dudley was at a loss of how they were going to get to their destination.

It seemed the only one not worried was Will, who was sitting contently in the family room, reading through his birthday book yet again. At times Dudley couldn't help but wonder where his son had gotten his love for reading, because he certainly hadn't had such a gift before he became a wizard.

The grandfather clock in the hallway began to chime 10, and Dudley began to wonder if Harry was running late. It certainly wouldn't be the first time a wizard had run late…The clock was finishing it's last chime…

_CRACK!_

Dudley almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the deafening crack, and he was sure his mother was close to fainting. But Will only jumped up, "They're here!"

Dudley blinked, and sure enough, in a spot where there had been nothing but carpet before now stood Harry, dressed in his wizarding robes. Beside him was Albus, holding onto his father's arm tightly. Dudley smiled at the affection Al was showing his father.

That is until Harry turned to Al and asked, with all seriousness, "Are you still in one piece?"

Dudley had thought Harry had been joking until Al readjusted his glasses, "I think I lost my eyebrow…again."

Harry furrowed his brow, "Always the eyebrow…"

"Al!" Will shouted, grinning from ear to ear. Al smiled in return, happy to see his friend.

Dudley, on the other hand, stared at Harry, "His eyebrow?" The blonde asked.

Harry nodded, seemingly puzzled, "Yeah, it's always the left one too…I never was very good at side along Apparition."

"Apparition?" Petunia spoke for the first time, staring at Harry. For a while, nothing was said between the two, just watching each other. Finally, Harry cleared his throat.

"Er, yes, Apparition. It's the ability for a witch or wizard to appear or disappear on the spot. Side along is when you bring someone with you…obviously I'm not very good…"

Dudley was suddenly alarmed, "You won't be taking us by Apparition, will you?" If Al had lost an eyebrow, who could say what Will, Petunia or even himself could lose?

Seeing Dudley's worry, Harry quickly shook his head, "Oh nonono, I wouldn't ever try to Apparate with so many people, who knows what could happen. Don't worry, we're travelling a different way."

Will laughed, "Well it isn't by car, Mari just left in the car." Al chuckled next to him.

Harry nodded, "And I know how you feel about Floo powder, Aunt Petunia." Petunia gave a small nod, not wanting to remember the day her fireplace had exploded in her living room. "And unfortunately, we can't all fly on broomsticks."

Dudley couldn't help but ask, "Then how?"

Harry smiled, as if Dudley had just walked into a practical joke. Slowly, The older wizard reached into the folds of his cloak, rummaging for something. The Dursleys watched in fascination, even Petunia was leaning in to get a better look as Harry's hand returned from his pocket, clutching…

A can of beans.

Will stared at the can quizzically, "We're going to eat magic beans?"

Al stifled a laugh as Harry smiled, "Not quite. But if you could please place your hand on the can quickly, we can get going." Almost like a demonstration, Al came to his father's side and placed his hand on the aluminum can. Slowly, Will put his hand next to Al's.

Dudley and Petunia shared a look, almost daring the other to back out. Luckily, the two seemed to keep each other accountable, as both took hold of the can.

Harry took out a pocket watch, looking at the time, "Alright then, we appear to be on time…we should be departing right…about…"

Dudley suddenly felt like he was being pulled forward, as if someone had attached a hook to his navel and decided to give it a sharp tug.

* * *

Will hit the ground hard, his hands almost burying themselves in the dirt. He was not expecting such a sensation. What  _was_  that? He had felt like he had been the rope in a tug of war match.

A thin hand extend to him. Al smiled down at Will, "Don't worry, most people have trouble keeping their balance the first time they Portkey."

"A  _what_  now?" Will asked, taking Al's hand and standing up. A quick look around showed that his father and grandmother had also lost their balance. Harry was helping his aunt off the ground while Dudley dusted himself off.

Al chuckled, "A Portkey is an enchanted object that brings anyone who touches it to a specific location. For us, that place was here."

Will took a second look at their surroundings. He knew their destination was Diagon Alley, but he didn't think that it was an actually alleyway…maybe the shops were invisible? Or maybe you had to say the right words?

Harry looked at Will's confused expression, "Don't worry, this isn't Diagon Alley. We're actually in London right now, take a look." The older wizard carefully shepherded the Dursley family out onto the main street of London. "To get to Diagon Alley, we need to get to the Leaky Cauldron first." Harry winked at Will, "Can you see it Will?"

Will looked around the street they were standing on. There were plenty of shops and pubs, but none of them looked…wait, there it was. It was secluded in a dark corner, Will almost hadn't seen it. But after seeing the peeling sign, Will eagerly pointed out the pub to Harry.

"Where?" Dudley asked, unable to see where his son was pointing, "I don't see it. Are you sure you see it Will?"

"Of course dad! It's right there!" Will jabbed his finger at the Leaky Cauldron as their party made their way across the street.

Petunia shook her head, "William dear, you must be mistaken, there's nothing there."

The Dursleys turned to look at Al and Harry, who were trying to keep from laughing.

"What?" Will asked, hoping his new friend and his dad hadn't played a mean trick on him.

Harry chuckled slightly, "Sorry about that, but Dudley, you'll never be able to see the Leaky Cauldron, neither will you Aunt Petunia."

Al leaned over to Will as Harry was talking to his cousin and Aunt, "What dad means is that only our kind can see it. The Leaky Cauldron is spelled against muggles to keep them from stumbling upon it on accident. Dad just wanted you to do a bit of magic on your own."

Will beamed at this bit of news as Harry led a very confused Dudley and Petunia into the Leaky Cauldron, Al and Will close behind them.

The pub was dark, almost shady looking. Will knew his mother would have never let him in here if she knew what it was like. from where he stood, Will could see several different wizards and witches, some looking exactly what he imagined them to look like, some looked even scarier. From the looks of things, it looked like his grandmother was about to faint.

Al smiled, "See her over there?" Will followed Al's gaze to a bizarre looking witch wearing what looked like bottle caps around her neck, "She's an old friend of my dad's. A bit odd…but a very nice lady."

At this, Will didn't know if he was supposed to be comforted or scared by what Al said.

As it turned out, Will wouldn't have much time to think about it. The group had barely been in the pub for 2 minutes when a particularly old wizard stood up, pointing a long, bony finger at Harry.

"By Merlin…It's Harry Potter…"

The words had barely left the old man's mouth before every head in the pub was turned and focused right on Harry, who was blushing furiously.

Al groaned, "Here we go again."

Will stared at Al. Here  _what_ goes again?


	11. This Was Magic

All eyes seemed to be on Harry as the entire building seemed to go quiet. Soon there was not a single noise to be heard, and Dudley couldn't help but wonder why Harry had so suddenly been put on the spot. Harry certainly hadn't been the most charismatic child growing up, Dudley remembered how his cousin had almost no friends in primary school. Even now, Harry seemed to squirm under the gaze of so many people. So why…

"Mr. Potter…" A very haggard looking witch slowly approached Harry, "I cannot believe I'm seeing you with my own eye. It is an honor."

It was almost as if the witch's movements had triggered a flood of attention. The rest of the pub goers were almost egged on by her actions and were soon hounding Harry with requests and general comments of adoration.

"Mr. Potter, could you please sign this for me?"

"Mr. Potter, a picture please?"

"Mr. Potter, you wouldn't believe how many times my little boy has run around the house pretending to be you."

"Mr. Potter-"

"-is it true-"

"-absolutely wonderful-"

"-do you think-"

"OI!" A suddenly booming voice ripped through the tavern, causing everyone, including the Dursleys and Potters, to turn and face the source of the sudden interruption. There, standing on the counter of the bar, clad in his usual turquoise hair and pierced eyebrow, was Teddy.

One stout wizard huffed at Teddy, "And who do you think you are, you loon?"

The vibrant wizard got off the counter and back onto the floor, "Mr. Potter is here on private business and wishes not to be disturbed at this time. I'm the Auror assigned to escort Mr. Potter and his family unharmed and unmolested during this time."

Dudley was surprised at how professional Teddy sounded in comparison to his behavior at Harry's house. In fact, Teddy looked almost nothing like the teenaged wizard he met a few months ago. Instead of wearing a bright violet robe, Teddy now wore a sharp looking navy robe with several bright red stripes around his sleeves. Teddy wasn't even wearing his tight, ragged jeans; instead he had on a pair of simple slacks.

"You? Don't make me laugh." The same wizard barked at Harry's godson. There were a few murmurs of agreement amongst the crowd.

Teddy smoothly removed something from his cloak, though what it was, Dudley couldn't see from where he was standing, "Yes, me. Now, if you don't let Mr. Potter and his family through, I will be forced to arrest you for disturbing the peace."

There were quite a few grumbles, but no one seemed to want to test Teddy's patience, as they slowly moved away from Harry. Harry took advantage of this freedom, and nearly dragged Dudley and his family, not to mention Al, out of the back door of the pub. Teddy followed close behind.

"I thought you knew better than to walk right into the Leaky Cauldron without your hood, Uncle Harry." The bright teen laughed, seriousness gone and his normal bubbly personality back. Dudley could have sworn he saw his mother cringe at the sight of Teddy's hair.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck shyly, "I normally do, Teddy. I guess I got so caught up with the family and everything that I guess I forgot…But thanks for bailing me out."

"Don't mention it…really, don't. I'm not supposed to flash my badge around when I'm off duty." Teddy nodded knowingly at Harry.

"What are you?" Will asked in amazement. Teddy chuckled.

"Well if you must know, I am many things. I am man, I am a Metamorphmagus, I'm an Auror-"

"Uh...don't know what those last two are..." Will admitted.

Teddy chuckled, "Well, since you asked so nicely…an Auror works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I catch bad wizards." The teen puffed out his chest in a proud manner.

"So you're a magical policeman?" Will asked.

Teddy stared at Will, "What's a policemen?" It was then that Teddy looked at Dudley, "Well it's nice to see you again, although it looks like your wife might have had a nasty run in with one of Uncle George's Rip VanWinkle Sprinkles." The teen wizard arched his pierced eyebrow at Petunia.

"I beg your pardon?" Petunia sniffed indignantly.

Al quickly whispered something in Teddy's ear, the latter quickly turned bright red and his hair blushing to a brilliant magenta, "No one told me she was his mother, not his wife! You keep making me look like an idiot!"

Dudley could hear Harry mutter under his breath, "You do that on your own."

Will on the other hand, looked at Harry, "What happened in there? Why did all those people know who you are?"

Harry groaned, "Just war stuff, that's all Will. I just made a few contributions to the war effort, that's all…"

"You were a child soldier then?" Will asked eagerly. Al just looked like he wanted Will to simply drop the subject, a look that Dudley made careful note of.

"Yeah… you could say that. I just lead a small group of troops during the war. The only reason that I'm more notably recognized was because we were all child soldiers."

Will's eyes seemed to get bigger as Harry's cheeks burned brighter. Dudley had never noticed before now just how modest Harry could be.

Will opened his mouth, ready to ask more questions. Luckily for Harry, Teddy noticed his godfather's awkward position and intervened on his behalf.

"Hey Will, what's your favorite color?"

Soon Will and Al were watching Teddy change everything about his facial appearance for their amusement. But Dudley was was watching Harry, who seemed relieved that Will was distracted.

"You led a squadron of child soldiers then?" Dudley asked his cousin quietly. Petunia stood next to her son, watching her nephew.

Harry nodded slightly, "I did…when I was 15. That was before the war had even broken out. When I left your house for the last time, I was starting out on a quest to kill the man who murdered my parents. Luckily for me, everyone else in the free wizarding world was terrified of him and wanted him gone, hence why I was never arrested for murder."

"Murder?" Petunia gasped, trying to keep herself as quiet as possible. Again Harry nodded.

"A lot of people died in that war, Ginny even lost a brother…the reason why everyone nearly worships the ground I walk on was because I ended the second wizarding war…and I guess you could say I ended the first one also…"

"Harry, what are you saying? You single handedly ended both wars?" Dudley tried to keep from gawking at his cousin. It had been hard for him to believe that Harry played a sport, but to believe that he was a war hero?

But Harry shook his head, "Not single handedly," Petunia gave a small sigh of relief, "I had a lot of help. But I was the one who killed Voldemort."

Dudley furrowed his brow, "Who?"

"The one who killed my parents."

"…oh"

Harry nodded, eager to drop the subject, "Well, Now that we've spent enough time just chit chatting, we better get going. Say bye to Teddy kids."

Teddy waved to Will and Al before Disapparating. Will walked next to his father as Harry approached a very solid brick wall.

"Harry?" Dudley couldn't help but wonder out loud.

The older wizard merely turned around and smiled at the Dursleys before pulling his wand out of his cloak. A hand tightened on Dudley's arm, making him realize that his mother was clinging to his arm.

Dudley could hear Al whisper to Will, "Wait until you see this…"

And Harry began to tap on the bricks of the wall.

* * *

This was most certainly magic.

Will's eyes widened in disbelief as the brick wall started to rearrange themselves in front of his very eyes. His dad and his grandmother watched with mouths agape, while Harry share a small smirk with Will and Al grinned.

"Cool isn't it?"

Will nodded dumbly as the bricks formed an archway, an archway that lead to Diagon Alley.

It was everything that Will had imagined it to be. There were shops that sold brooms just like he had ridden at Al's house, and there were…were those cauldrons in that shop window? And that witch was actually buying tongue of newt from that vendor!

"Mercy me…" Will heard his grandmother gasp, clinging to his father. Dudley tried his best to keep his disbelief at bay.

Harry chuckled at Petunia's response, "It's overwhelming isn't it?" The dark haired wizard carefully pulled his hood over his head, "Sorry about this, but I'd rather not get mobbed again."

Dudley only nodded, still staring wide eyed at the shops.

"Al." Albus looked at his father, Will by his side, "If I give you money, can I trust you to take Will into Flourish and Blott's to get your books for this year?"

Will watched as Al's green eyes brightened at the word 'books', "Of course you can Dad!"

Harry took a small pouch out of his cloak and gave Al a handful of gold, silver and bronze coins. Al was already halfway to the shop, pulling Will behind him before Harry was able to give him more instructions, "Make sure you buy both of your school books before you buy anything for pleasure reading!"

"I will Dad!" Al looked positively giddy as the two boys made their way into the store.

Will chucked, "You seemed eager to get away from your dad."

Al only shook his head, "Not away from my dad, I just wanted to get in here…you thought my library was nice, this place is amazing!"

Will looked around the store. Never in his life had he been excited for books, when he was in primary school his parents almost had to force him to read…but now…the sight of so many books only told Will that he had so much to learn, so much he could learn to do…he didn't know where to start.

Al grinned, "Pretty cool huh?"

The blonde only nodded dumbly, "Where do we start?"

"With our school books of course!" Al laughed, dragging Will down the many aisles of the bookstore.

Will tried his best to keep up with everything that was happening, but more importantly he tried to read the covers of some of the books he was seeing. Were there really books on how to tame dragons and spells to make household life easier? There was so much to read…

"Come on Will, I think I see our Herbology book over there."

* * *

"My arms are going to break!" Will groaned under the weight of his text books. When he had read on his list that he needed  _HIstrory of the World: Volumes I, II and III_ , Will had thought perhaps they were joking. Now his arms were paying the price of the schools idea of a joke.

"Oh stop whining, Will. I got more books than you do!" Al grumbled as the two stepped out of the shop. After paying for their books, Al went back and got the newest edition of  _Hogwarts: A History._  Will thought it was silly, but Al insisted that the new edition had much more recent events in it.

"Hey Al, Will!" Both boys looked over to see Harry making his way over with Will's dad and grandmother.

Al sighed in relief, "Finally!" Harry had barely reached the two students before Al grabbed Harry's wallet, shoving all of his books into the small leather billfold. "Come on Will, your books will fit too."

There was a split second that Will didn't believe Al, but after remembering everything that had happened to him in the past few months, decided that there was nothing impossible with magic. Slowly, and almost hesitantly, Will dumped his books into Harry's wallet.

"There," Al stretched his arm gratefully, "Hey dad, what's that? I thought I told you I wanted to pick out my owl…"

Will watched as Al gestured to the cage at Harry's side. Inside was a large bird, who was currently napping, because the owl's head was neatly tucked under it's wing. Will could see the birds massive claws grip the perch and decided that he did not want to be on that bird's bad side.

Harry chuckled at Al, "This isn't for you, Al." Harry smiled at Will, "I told you that the book was only part of your gift Will."

Will looked at Harry, then at his Dad and grandmother, "Oh no, you don't have to do that…you've already done so much…"

"Will." The small blonde looked up at the older wizard, "I remember when I first started in the wizarding world, the first magical person I ever met gave me an owl. He said it was for all the birthday presents I should have gotten, but didn't. I thought I would pass on the tradition to you." Harry handed the cage to Will, who held it cautiously.

The small blonde gulped, "It's really big…"

Harry chuckled, "Yeah, they can get pretty big. That's a Eurasian Eagle Owl, one of the biggest in the world. But don't worry, she's done growing, and she's already been tamed to be a good companion," Harry leaned towards Will a bit, dropping the volume of his voice, "Plus, bigger owl means bigger packages from home…" The green eyed wizard gave Will a wink that was well hid from Dudley because of the wizard's hood.

Suddenly a grin spread over Will's face like wildfire.

Dudley looked around at the many shops, "Where do we go now Harry?"

Harry paused, trying to appear as if he were pondering some great mystery. Everyone watched as Harry smiled underneath his hood, "I guess our next stop should be Olivander's."

Al could have jumped for joy, but managed to refrain from doing so, "Come on Will, let's go!" The younger Potter smiled, trying to drag Will and his owl down the alley.

"What's Olivander's?" Will couldn't help but ask. Al didn't stop moving down the magical marketplace.

"Olivander's?" Al looked back at Will, grinning, "He's a wand maker, Will. We're getting our wands!"

Will could have sworn his heart had stopped.

He was really getting a magic wand.


	12. Wands and Wheezes

A wand. Will still couldn't believe it. He was going to have a magic wand, with which he could do untold magic. It was all to surreal to be actually happening…

"Come on Will!"

The young blonde wizard looked at his friend, who was eagerly trying to pull Will down the Alley. The young Dursley boy followed his friend as they passed the several shops, smiling happily.

"So what are we looking for in wands? Do we need to get student wands or-" Will trailed off as Al started to chuckle. Suddenly Will felt very foolish in front of his wizarding-born friend. "Sorry…"

But the smaller Potter boy just smiled. "There's nothing to be sorry for. You haven't grown up in the wizarding world like Dad and I have-"

Will stopped his friend, "Your dad didn't grow up in the wizarding world." Will could remember a lot, and he certainly remembered what his dad had confessed to the family, about Harry's childhood with them. And if there was one thing he knew, it was that his father's family had not been magical until Will had received his letter.

Al looked at the blonde, clearly confused, "What do you mean?"

It was at this point that Will had to look past Al and watch Harry, who was already halfway down Diagon Alley. Had Harry actually kept his childhood a secret from his family? Will certainly couldn't judge him if he did. After all, until his birthday, Will's own father kept his childhood a secret. But still, the fact that Harry had lied about his upbringing…

Said wizard turned and, seeing that Al and Will were so far behind, called out to them, "Come along you two! We've still got shopping to do!"

Al laughed, dragging Will behind him as they walked down the sidewalk. "We're coming Dad!"

* * *

Dudley couldn't help but stare at the ancient looking store beside Harry and his mother, not sure if he should be amazed or wary. The shop was perhaps the eyesore of the entire alley, making Petunia wrinkle her nose in disgust. Sparing a glance at Harry, Dudley could see a warm smile spreading across the wizard's face, although Dudley had no idea why Harry was so happy to see the dusty shop. The shop's gold lettering was almost non-existant, but the older Dursley man could make out the words  _Olivadner's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C._

 _382 B.C.?_  Dudley's eyes almost popped out of his skull;  _Surely this shop hasn't been open for over 2000 years…_  Dudley almost opened his mouth to dispute the store's age, but…after all that Dudley had witnessed and experienced with the wizarding world, suddenly the idea of a 2000 year old business didn't seem so outlandish.

Petunia snorted, "This place is filthy." She muttered through pursed lips, and Dudley had trouble disagreeing. The place looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years; dust had long since coated the display window, which held a single wand that had been placed on a pillow that may have once been purple, but after years of fading had turned a yellowing pink color.

Harry gave a small chuckle, reminding the two Dursley's of the older wizard's presence, "You two should learn not to base your judgments on appearances."

It seemed like Harry never ceased to show Dudley that he had so much more to grow compared to his younger cousin. Dudley should have been frustrated, but…he wasn't. Maybe he was growing in his own way.

"Whoa…" Dudley turned his eyes to Will, who had finally caught up to them with Al by his side. Will was looking at the ancient shop with wide eyes, bright and overjoyed.

Harry smiled, "Alright Al, I'm giving you the money. You two take your time in there. We'll meet you outside Uncle George's shop."

Albus smiled, "Alright Dad." The dark haired boy turned to Will, "Come on, let's go get our wands." Dudley had to chuckle as his son was nearly dragged into the shop by Al.

"We aren't going in there with them?" Petunia asked.

Harry shook his head, "Not this time…there's just something about getting a wand that a wizard should do by himself."

* * *

"Why are we in here by ourselves?" Will asked quietly as he looked around the dusty shop. He could understand why his grandmother would want to avoid the dirty shop, she'd probably get the urge to clean. But his dad…

Al rolled his eyes as he sat down on what Will considered a very unstable chair, "Dad has this notion that getting a wand is something that a wizard should do on his own. He says it's 'an intimate process that doesn't need spectators'." The green eyed boy stifled a laugh, "When he told Mum that, she called him an overzealous romantic. They actually argued over it when James got his Hogwarts letter, but Mum finally decided to humor him."

Will knit his brow, "Why is it 'an intimate process'?" for some reason, any phrase with the word 'intimate' just seemed dirty to him.

But as Al opened his mouth, a voice interrupted, "Ah, I thought I would be seeing another Potter boy in my shop soon."

The blonde wizard turned to look at the shop owner and tried to find a word to describe him besides… _bizarre_. The man's white hair showed no signs of thinning and his grey eyes stared piercingly down at the two boys.

Al sighed, "Yes Mr. Ollivander, another Potter boy…"

The owner, Mr. Ollivander Will now knew, watched Al with interest, "I remember when your father came into the shop. Holly, 11 inches with phoenix feather…very supple and very, very special." Will could see Al sag in his chair at the mention of his father, "Then there was your brother a few years ago: Vine, 12 ¼ inch with a unicorn hair. Very good for transfiguration work…" The aging man seemed to have finally noticed Will, "Now you I don't believe I've seen before: Muggle born I presume?"

Will gulped, stealing a look at Al before answering, "Er, yes…Will Dursley." Will wasn't sure if he was supposed to shake the man's hand or not.

Luckily Al stepped in, "We're distant cousins. Dad brought Will with us for shopping for Hogwarts."

Will could see a fire ignite in Ollivanders' eyes, "Indeed? Well Mr. Dursley, perhaps we can make a wizard out of you yet." The elderly man waved his own wand, and before Will knew what was happening, he was attacked by an enchanted tape measure. Ollivander looked through his several shelves of inventory, "Do you have any idea which arm is your wand arm? No…no you wouldn't know that…perhaps you know which hand you write with?"

Will stared cross eyed at the tape measure as it measured his nostrils, "Well, I'm actually left handed…" The blonde shot a dirty look at Al, who was enjoying himself watching Will battle with his measurements.

"Hm…indeed…" Ollivander suddenly returned with a long box from the many shelves. The tape measure then dropped to the floor, "What you need to realize Mr. Dursley is that no witch or wizard ever picks his wand, the wand always chooses the wizard." Will could feel his heart stop at the statement, "Each wand is unique and you will never get as good of results if you ever use another wizard's wand." With that, Olivander took a dark wand out of its box, "Try this: Cocobolo, 10 inches with dragon heartstring. Great for dueling."

Will took the wand, gripping it.

"Well go on then, give it a wave then boy."

The blonde blushed and, ignoring Al's smirk, waved the wand about. But he had barely started when Ollivander snatched the wand from his hand.

"Definitely not." The old man was already back in his supply of wands before Will had even realized what had happened. Al was trying his best not to laugh as Ollivander returned, "Alright, give this a go: Walnut, 9 ½ inches with phoenix feather, slightly bendy."

Will did give the wand a go, only to have it snatched out of his hand again by the old man. And so the process began to form a cycle. It seemed like every wand that Will tried just wasn't the right fit. And as each wand was rejected, Will couldn't help but fear that maybe he wasn't really a wizard, that there had been a mistake…

"This time I'm sure I've got it this time, Cherry, 12 ½ inches long with a phoenix feather. I'm willing to bet my trade as a wand maker." Will wished he could have been as confident as Ollivander as he took hold of the wand.

Immediately Will felt a warmth in his fingers that he had never felt before as red and gold sparks began to shoot from the end of the wand. "Whoa…"

Ollivander smirked.

* * *

Will was walking on air as he and Al exited the shop, clutching the box with his wand close to himself. Al also held his wand, Yew 11 ¾ inch with unicorn hair. For some reason, Al had seemed surprised when his wand was made of Yew, but for the life of him Will had no idea why.

"Where are we going now?" The blonde asked happily.

Al chuckled, "We're going to Weasley Wizard Wheezes!"

The two boys smiled as they began walking. "What kind of shop is that?" Will couldn't help but ask. At this, Al all but grinned.

"It's the best wizarding joke shop ever! My Uncle George actually founded the shop while he was still in Hogwarts! They've got everything in there, like Canary Creams and Ton-Tongue Toffees and Headless Hats and…"

Will smiled softly as his friend rambled on and on about the joke shop, already excited for what was inside. Maybe he could get something to show Mari or his mum…

"There you two are!"

Al and Will both spotted Harry with Dudley and Petunia at the same time, waving happily. Apparently, while Will and Al had been getting their wands, Harry had taken Dudley and Petunia to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, because the three adults were contently licking away at their ice cream.

"Dad!" Will all but ran to his father, "I've got a wand now!"

Dudley smiled at his son, "Let me see it."

Eagerly, Will showed his father his newly acquired wand, "It's 12 ½ inches long, made of Cherry wood and it has a Phoenix feather in it!"

Although Dudley had no idea of the significance any of what his son had just said, he still played the part of the supportive parent well, "That's great Will!"

Harry smiled at the two before looking at Al, "What about you Al?"

"…It's Yew." Will was surprised to see Al so quiet, almost shy about telling his father about his wand.

The older Potter raised an eyebrow, "That's interesting…hey, why don't you show Will the joke shop?"

Al smiled at his dad before, once again, dragging Will mercilessly behind him into the shop with the adults following close behind him.

* * *

Dudley had never seen such a bold and vibrant shop in all his life. It was certainly a far cry from Ollivanders dusty shop, both in color and in noise. It seemed as if everything had some moving part or made some sort of noise or changed some sort of color. It was overwhelming to say the least.

Beside him, Harry chuckled, "It's a lot isn't it?"

The older blonde had no trouble agreeing with his cousin, "Why do you like this place?"

Harry began laughing, "My brother in law actually founded and owns this place."

"Really?" Dudley raised his eyebrows, "That's impressive."

"Why thank you."

Dudley almost jumped out of his skin as a strange voice spoke behind him. The Dursley man spun on the spot.

And almost bumped right into a magenta clad, red haired wizard.

"Oi, nice to see you again Harry!" The red haired wizard smiled at Harry, who was trying to keep from laughing at Dudley's shocked expression.

"It's nice to see you too George," Harry smiled, "Have you taken Fred shopping yet for Hogwarts?"

The redhead, George, rolled his eyes, "No Harry, we just left him to whine and moan until he drove us bonkers. He barely had his letter a week before we had to take him shopping." It was then George turned his attention to Dudley, "I didn't know you had friends outside the family Harry. How rude, keeping him all to yourself." George tutted at Harry disapprovingly. "So who's your mystery friend?"

Harry cleared his throat awkwardly, "Um, George, this is my cousin Dudley."

There was a good 10 seconds that George stared at Dudley, "No he isn't."

"Yes he is."

"No he isn't, your cousin was a fat git last time I saw him. A fat git who couldn't help but eat our supply of Ton-Tongue Toffees."

It was at this time that the pieces suddenly fell into place. The toffees. His tongue growing faster than he could imagine. Red haired twins.

Dudley groaned, "Oh no, it's you." George looked at Dudley, still debating if he believed Harry as Dudley stared at George with wide eyes, "Don't go trying to get me to eat another one of your sweets again…where has the other one gone? Is your twin hiding somewhere?"

Both Harry and George fell deathly silent, not looking at Dudley. Dudley was confused to say the lease at how such a simple sentence could stop a conversation.

"OI! I'm over here you blonde git!"

Dudley spun around, trying to find the source of the voice. He had made a complete circle twice already and still hadn't found who had called out to him.

"On the wall, you ninny!"

The blonde man stared at where the voice had come from.

At the giant portrait on the wall.

"What? Whatcha staring at?" The painted image of Fred Weasley crossed his arms, "Didn't your mother tell you it's rude to stare? Or was she too busy stuffing you with food?"

Dudley was at a loss, "You're…"

"A painting? Yes, well George didn't think I would have made a very good sculpture." As Fred began to move in his painting, Dudley thought for sure that he had gone off the deep end.

"But…where's the real you? Like him?" Dudley felt like foolish pointly dumbly at George while he asked his question.

Fred paused, posing in a pondering position, "You mean my body? I suppose it's in a cemetery somewhere, I never bothered to ask. It's just so awkward asking people."

His body? Dudley was slightly unnereved at Fred's choice of words. He made it sound like-

' _His mom lost a brother…Al doesn't like to talk about it-'_

' _Ginny even lost a brother.'_

Red hair. Twins. Weasley boys.

Dudley's eyes widened.

He was talking to a dead man.

"Oi, don't go passing out on me. You haven't even had anything from here." Fred seemed to have no problem with the fact that he was dead, still having a conversation as if he were still alive.

Harry placed a hand on Dudley's shoulder, "Fred be nice. Dudley's taken this whole magic thing quite well if you ask me."

George snorted, "Yes, he did seem to enjoy those toffees, didn't he?"

"That he did." Fred added, "Although he does look much smaller from here."

Dudley crossed his arms, "I've lost the weight."

"And Harry's lost his mind."

"Really Harry-"

"Brining a muggle-"

"-into Diagon Alley-"

"-are you trying-"

"-to get thrown in the loony bin?" Fred and George's ability to finish a sentence together seemed to transcend the grave, unnerving Dudley indefinitely.

Harry on the other hand simply rolled his eyes, "Dudley's here for the same reason I am." The dark haired wizard pointed across the shop where Al and Will were showing Petunia a pygmy puff, "Dudley's son Will is going to be starting Hogwarts with Al and Fred." Harry stole a glance at Dudley's expression, "George's son Fred II, as opposed to Fred the first." Harry pointed to the painting.

Dudley wished he could have said he understood. He really did.

"He has a son then?"

"That must mean he has a wife."

Both twins shared a look.

"Brave woman." Both decided in unison.

"Very brave-"

"-or very stupid."

Dudley clenched his fist, "I love my wife and children very much, thank you!"

"Guys, be nice, please?" Harry pleaded with the twins. "Diane is a great woman, Ginny gets along great with her. And Will and Al are already great friends. Please, just be nice."

There was another moment where there was silence as the twins shared a look.

"We'll have to wait and see-"

"-won't we? We'll be nice-"

"-if you'll be nice."

Dudley, Fred and George seemed to stare at one another, waiting for some sort of nonverbal agreement to be made. Luckily for Dudley, the twins seemed to be satisfied on said agreement.

George chuckles, "Well, I guess I'll see you on Platform 9 ¾ then, shall I?"

Harry sighed in relief, "Alright, let's see what Al and Will have gotten into, shall we?"

As Harry drug Dudley across the room, Dudley couldn't help but wonder.

_Platform 9 ¾?_


	13. Letting Go

"You look so good Will!" Diane cooed when she returned home from work.

Will had been standing on the living room coffee table, showing off his wizarding robes to Mari, Petunia and Dudley when he spotted his mother, "Hey Mum! Look it!" The blonde wizard spun around on the Dursleys oak table, his robes spinning around him like a skirt.

For once, Diane ignored the fact her son was standing on the furniture as she set her purse on the floor, "You look stunning Will." She chuckled, tugging on the hem of Will's black cloak, "But do wizards really wear the pointed hats?"

Will pouted when his mother pointed out the pointed at on his head, not appreciating the humor as much as the rest of his family, "Yes, we do. It even says in my letter ' _One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear'._ "

At this, Dudley laughed, "He's right Diane." As proof, the older blonde held up Will's list of requirements for Diane to read.

The tired brunette sat next to her husband, taking the letter from Dudley, "…Where on earth did you get this stuff again?"

"Diagon Alley."

Dian rolled her eyes at Dudley, "That helps a lot. Where was this place anyways?"

Apparently, this was enough to send Will into an overly detailed account of Harry's arrival with Al and how Al had lost his eyebrow, and how Harry had taken them to an alley in London and how Will could see the Leaky Cauldron when Dudley and Petunia couldn't, and how Harry had attracted everyone's attention in the Leaky Cauldron, and how they had met Teddy again, and how Harry had made a brick wall turn into the archway to Diagon Alley…

Will was still rambling when Diane gave a tired look to Dudley, "Next time, you go work a full shift and  _I'll_ go have the magical shopping spree."

Mari giggled, tugging on Dudley's trousers, "Me too! I want to shop and get a wand too!"

Dudley and Diane shared a look, not wanting to tell their daughter that Mari wouldn't be getting a wand. Luckily for them, Will provided enough distraction to Mari that she promptly forgot what she said.

"Well at least now we can relax until he goes to school." Diane gave a tired chuckle, leaning against Dudley.

Out of habit, Dudley began to play with Diane's hair, "Until we take him to the train."

"Hmmm, at King's Cross?"

Dudley nodded, "Yes…but at Platform 9 ¾."

"…Of course it would be something outrageous." Diane rolled her eyes, "This time I will figure out where it is, it can't be too hard, right?"

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No Will, not yet."

"…Now are we there?"

Diane groaned, "I expected this from Mari, not you Will."

Dudley chuckled, "Just be glad Mum took Mari to school instead of her riding with us."

"I don't even want to think about this car ride with both of them whining."

"Mum!" Will pouted, "I am not whining."

"And what do you call that? That's whining!"

"I'm just eager!"

It was at this time that Dudley rolled his eyes. Will may have looked like Dudley, but the boy had received his mother's determination and stubbornness.

"We're here."

Apparently, neither Will nor Diane heard Dudley as they continued to bicker. The blonde man sighed before getting out to unload Will's trunk from the car, taking special car to avoid moving Will's owl too much. For some reason, the bird still gave Dudley the chills, especially after he has supposedly insulted her on the day Will had named her.

" _I've decided what to name her!"_  Dudley could remember the day that Will had announced to the family that his owl finally had a name besides 'owl'.

Diane was oddly alright with the owl, once she learned that the owl was smart enough not to bring dead things into the house.  _"Oh? What did you think of?"_ She had asked.

Will had grinned, proudly declaring,  _"Nike!"_

Dudley, who had been half asleep at the time, mumbled stupidly,  _"Like the trainers?"_

It had been at this point that Nike began to screech at Dudley, flapping her wings violently against her cage. It had been the first outburst the bird had had and it nearly scared the entire family, including Petunia, who's curlers almost fell out of her hair. The bird had only calmed down when Will had rushed to her cage and talked her out of her temper tantrum.

" _Dad, Nike is a Greek deity! She's the Grecian goddess of victory."_

Needless to say, Dudley had been embarrassed that his 11 year old son had known that and he hadn't.

But now Dudley could see that Will and Diane had stopped bickering and had finally gotten out of the car. Thankfully, Will was holding Nike.

"Is this everything?" Diane asked Will, double checking that there were no more bags in the car.

Will nodded, "Yes mum."

"That's good. Do you have your wa-" Diane started to ask her son, but Dudley quickly quieted her, casting a wary eye on the people around him.

Diane bit her lip sheepishly, casting a knowing look to Will, who nodded, patting his coat pocket to show that he did in fact have his wand on him.

Dudley nodded back to Will, "Right, shall we get going then? Will, what time does your ticket say you need to leave?"

The smaller blonde quickly retrieved his ticket from his pocket, "It says 11 o'clock sharp on Platform 9 ¾."

"9 ¾…" Diane shook her head, "I'm still trying to imagine how one would-"

"Good morning Dursley family."

The three Dursleys turned to face Harry, who was helping Albus and James with their own trunks.

"Al!" Will's grin got bigger than Dudley had ever imagined it could.

The smaller Potter boy smiled back at Will, "Hey Will! You ready for the train ride?"

Dudley could have sworn he heard Diane mutter beside him, "So they are going on trains?"

Ginny, who was holding Lily's hand, looked out to the road, "We're just waiting for my idiot brother and his family before we head onto the platform…"

The red haired woman trailed off, and Dudley could see why. A small red car sped into a parking spot in front of the station. Stepping out of the car was a tall and lanky red haired man.

"I told you we wouldn't be late Hermione!" He laughed, puffing out his chest in pride.

Hermione, a bushy haired brunette, was not amused, "You almost got us killed Ronald!"

"But I didn't" Ronald grinned stupidly, "Now come on, Harry and Gin are waiting for us."

After some bustling with a trunk and their two children, Ron and Hermione made their way to the group waiting for them.

Ron grinned as he clapped Harry on the shoulder, "Another year, another kid, right Harry?"

Harry laughed, "How would you know Ron? Rosie's your first one off to Hogwarts."

The red head rolled his eyes, "You forget I was the youngest of 6 boys, luckily I was able to be born before Ginny…"

"I heard that Ron!"

Ron winced at his sisters reprimand, then noticed the Dursley clan who had been watching the entire exchange quietly, "I didn't know you brought friends Harry."

Harry smiled, "They're family Ron."

There was something about the fact that Harry had so easily called him and Diane and Will family that made Dudley smile. It may have been silly, but they were after all…family.

The red head, on the other hand, quirked an eyebrow, "Wait…this isn't-"

"It is Ron."

"But-"

"Get over it, everyone else has." Harry chuckled as he helped James, Al and Will move their trunks, Diane and Dudley close behind them.

Diane was finally sick of being ignored, "Harry, I know this is probably going to sound foolish to…someone like you, but how are we getting to…"

"Platform 9 ¾?" Ron supplied.

Diane gave an even glare at Ron. "Yes…"

Harry smiled as they approached platforms 9 and 10, "Don't worry, it's easy once you do it once." The dark haired wizard pointed at the barrier, "All you have to do is run right into the center of the divider between platforms 9 and 10."

There was dead silence as the Dursleys just stared at Harry, not sure if the older wizard had finally lost it.

Al leaned over to Will, "It's really easy, come on." The younger Potter grinned before taking off in a full sprint towards the brick divider. It only took Will a fraction of a second to decide before racing after his friend, ignoring the protests of his mother.

"WILL!"

* * *

Will opened his eyes, not realizing that he had closed them, and promptly gasped.

They were no longer at King's Cross Station.

Will could see all sorts of witches and wizards on the platform, their cloak's varying in colors and designs. There was no one that looked the same.

Except for some of the students who were already in their robes, but even then, Will could see that there was some color in some of the older students ties, just enough to have the primary colors: red, blue, green and yellow…

"Hey Will, you better get out of the way before Rosie runs you over!" Al laughed, making his way across the platform.

Will had barely moved his trunk before a smaller red haired girl made her way through the barrier, followed by James.

"I can't believe you did that Al, I thought those poor muggles were going to keel over." The new red haired witch was already wearing her robes, making Will wonder if he should have changed his cloths.

James, on the other hand, started laughing, "Oh come on Rosie. I'm surprised that they haven't gotten used to everything yet. I mean, they met Teddy already…"

Rosie rolled her eyes, "You two have lived your entire lives in the magical world; they have not." The fiery haired witch turned to Will, "I'm surprised we haven't gotten to meet yet" She extended her hand, "I'm Rose Weasley."

Will paused for a moment, then took the girl's hand, "Will Dursley." It was definitely strange to shake a girl's hand. Girls were just…girls.

The group waited for the rest of their large party to make their way through the barrier, with Will's parents being the last people through with Harry, who almost had to drag them across.

"I will never get used to magic…" Dudley muttered.

Harry smiled, "You've been doing a pretty good job so far Dudley."

The Dursley man gave Harry a skeptical look, "You just had to drag me through a brick wall."

"Oh both of you shut up." Ginny rolled her eyes at the cousins before going back to watching Lily and Hugo have an animated conversation.

James spotted a group of his friends from the Quidditch team and waved at them eagerly, "I'll see you all at Christmas!" he yelled at his family before trying to take off towards his friends. Unfortunately for him, Ginny managed to get her hand on his collar before he got too far.

"Not so fast young man," Ginny said, "You have to give Mummy and Daddy a goodbye kiss."

"MUM! I'm 13, I'm too old for that. And why do I have to say goodbye to Dad? I'll see him at Hogwarts!" James tried his best to get out of his mother's request, but all who knew Ginny Potter knew that she didn't budge on anything. So reluctantly James gave both Ginny and Harry kisses on their cheeks before running off to get on the train.

The train whistle began to blow, and soon all the parents were saying their last goodbyes to the children as children began to board the train.

Will made his way to the train behind Al, but Dudley laid a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Will…"

The Dursley men looked at each other for a moment before Dudley finally found his voice again, "Will…I just want you to know that I really am proud of you. I may not be able to understand everything as fast as you will, but that doesn't change the fact that you're my son…" Dudley took a deep breath, trying to find the right words, "I knew you were always special, but I guess even I couldn't imagine how special you would be. You've grown so much just within the past few months, I'm almost afraid to see how much you grow at Hogwarts." Here he tried to laugh, but it came out as a halfhearted chuckle, "Will, what I'm trying to say is…I really do love you and I'm going to miss you."

Will looked at his dad for a moment before giving the older man a quick hug around his middle. Dudley eagerly returned the embrace, holding his son as long as he could.

"Dad…I have to go now."

"Right…right…" Reluctantly, Dudley released his hold on Will, who then boarded the train. He hadn't realized that accepting Will as a wizard and letting him go were two different things, and both were just as hard.

"It gets easier." Dudley looked at Harry, who was waving to Al as he boarded the train, "The first year, it's always an unknown, then after that, you know that they're in safe hands and that they're living the life they were born to live."

Even though he was still reluctant to let Will go, Dudley took comfort in the fact that Will wasn't alone. And as the train pulled away from the platform, Dudley knew that Will had plenty of family to watch over him, including the cousin that he should have watched over and cared for.

Yes, Dudley Dursley knew that Will would have the time of his life.

* * *

"What a long day." Diane groaned as she threw herself on the large master bed after they got back from the train station.

Dudley nodded, lying next to his wife. To be honest, he was exhausted after the events of the entire summer and he was ready for things to calm down.

"You know," Diane chuckled, rolling over to face Dudley, "If you had told me last year that you had a cousin that was a wizard and that Will was also a wizard and there was not only a wizarding school, but actually an entire magical world that I never knew about…I'd probably tell you to stop drinking."

This made Dudley smile, "And considering the fact I don't drink, I would have just checked myself into the loony bin."

Husband and wife shared a smile as Diane rested her head on Dudley's chest, who in turn wrapped his arms around her.

Diane sighed softly, "I missed this…"

Dudley nodded, giving his wife a peck on the lips. "Me too…" At the small gesture of affection, Diane gave a small giggle, cuddling closer to her husband.

But the tender moment between the two was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. Dudley groaned at the obnoxious device before moving to get up, only to be stopped by Diane holding onto the collar of his shirt.

"Let it ring."

A grin tugged across Dudley's lips, glad to ignore the phone and focus on more… _important_  things. After all, the answering machine would get it.

" _You've reached the Dursley residence; we can't come to the phone right now, so if you could leave us a message, we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you."_

" _Ah, Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, this is Alan Witherby from St. Thomas Primary. This is about Marigold, she seems to be causing quite a bit of commotion. It seems that she's turned her teacher's hair blue._


End file.
